A Prayer for My 15-Year-Old, Who is Set Apart

A Prayer for My 15-Year-Old, Who is Set Apart

Jacob Stratman

He won’t come out of his room very often—
only to eat what we’ve prepared, only to receive
love that doesn’t always look like anything he wants,
yet time is a friend of the God who creates it.

He won’t come out of his room very often,
or speak in complete sentences or listen
long enough to attend to the beauty of silences
yielded here, prepared just for him. Not yet.

He won’t come out of his room very often,
out of himself very often, but we will wait,
leaving this space empty of our wishes
You will fill with hope, with Your self

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Jacob Stratman
Poet & Educator

Jacob’s first book of poems, What I Have I Offer With Two Hands, is a part of the Poiema Poetry Series (Cascade, 2019). His most recent poems can be found in The Christian Century, Spoon River Poetry Review, Salt Hill, Bearings Online, and Moria. He lives and teaches at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, AR.

Photography by Jonas Jaeken