A Prayer for a Traveling Loved One

Father, someone I love is far from me tonight, or soon will be, and I cannot go along. So I am sending You instead — though I know You were already there before I asked.

Go with them through the airport lines and the crowded terminals. Sit beside them on the plane, the train, the bus. Ride in the passenger seat through every unfamiliar town. Where I would say "be careful," say it for me. Where I would reach for their hand, take it.

Keep their phone charged and their wallet close. Let the hotel room lock hold, the taxi driver be honest, and the strangers around them be the kind ones, Lord — You have kind people planted everywhere; put a few of them in my loved one's path.

Guard their health while they are away. If they get sick or hurt in a place where nobody knows their name, raise up help quickly — a good doctor, a patient nurse, a person who stops instead of walking past.

And Father, watch over the tender thing that happens when people we love are far away: the worry that creeps in at night, the empty chair at dinner, the checking of the phone for a message that hasn't come yet. Quiet my mind when it runs ahead to fearful places. Remind me that the same moon over my house is over theirs, and the same God, too.

Count the days with me, Lord. And when the trip is done, bring them up the walk and through the door and back into my arms — tired, maybe, and full of stories, but safe, and home.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

When to Pray This

Pray this after the goodbye — at the curb, at the gate, or standing in the doorway watching the car pull away. Many people pray it each night a loved one is gone, right after the goodnight text goes through. Or doesn't.

A Verse to Hold On To

"The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another." — Genesis 31:49 (KJV)