The groans of the abandoned and the silent cry of the unborn are not hid from Him who is very pitiful and of tender mercy. When the soul sits shivering in the wilderness, stripped of every earthly shelter, then is the time for divine mercy to draw near. Remember Hagar, thrust out from the tents of her mistress, alone by the well in the desert, no father, no mother, no brother, no sister to care for her. There the Angel of the Lord found her, and His first words were a searching question that revealed her need and His compassion. Even so, the Lord of mercy meets you in your desolation, and He asks, not to condemn, but to heal.
Lift up your heart concerning those little ones, unborn and untimely taken, whom no human eye ever beheld. The tender mercy of our God is a broad and soft shelter. He compares Himself to a hen covering her brood; He doth not merely spread the great wings of protection, but He speaks of the feathers, the downy, warm, comforting feathers under which the weakest may nestle and repose. “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.” These babes are not cast out. They are gathered to the bosom of Him who said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” He who fashioned their tiny frames hath received their spirits; and though a mother may forget her sucking child, the Lord will not forget them. In this we rest our hope: the Judge of all the earth must do right, and His mercy is over all His works.
But to you who are bowed down with abandonment, who cry out as one betrayed by wife, husband, daughter, son, or friend, and who find no refuge in a madhouse world, to you the errand of mercy is sent this very hour. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. When every earthly gate is barred, the pearly gate stands ajar. When man pronounces the case hopeless and sets the outcast in a leper’s colony, Jesus draws near and touches the untouchable, and saith, “Be thou clean.” He is the Great Interpreter, the Messenger of the Covenant, who alone can make a soul feel the way of salvation and rejoice in it. And this mercy is gracious; it is gratis, free as the air you breathe. He never sells, He always gives. What the Gospel asks of you, it first bestows; it bids you come, just as you are, with nothing but a cry for mercy.
Yet let me sound a warning. There is a false hope in mercy which is death to the soul. Many say, “God is merciful,” and continue in rebellion, never born again, never divorced from their own righteousness or their own despair. That is not hope; it is presumption. Sound hope in mercy makes you feel your desperate need of it. It turns your face from sin and self, and it makes Christ precious to you. If you are to have this hope, you must know that it is mercy you need, utter mercy, undeserved, sovereign mercy. And when that hope dawns, it comes often in our lowest estate, when we are not fit to receive it, when we are yet babbling our prayer, and lo, the mercy forestalls us. That sickness, that disaster, that piercing loss which you lament, may it not be the strange providence which kept you from a yet greater fall?
Behold, the sword of Justice quivers, but Mercy’s strong hand presseth it back into the scabbard, crying, “Sleep, O sword, sleep; for I will have mercy upon sinners.” Yet trifle not with this forbearance. The barren tree is spared for a season, but if it bring forth no fruit, the sentence will at last be executed. Flee then, to Christ, the only sacrifice for sin. In Him, God looks upon guilt with eyes of mercy, for He hath punished His dear Son in the sinner’s stead. May the Holy Spirit sweetly compel you to come to the shelter of those wings, and may you find, beneath those feathers, a warmth and a peace that no earthly abandonment can quench. The Lord grant it, for Jesus’ sake.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
