I dream like many others. Sometimes I remember them. Sometimes I don’t. This morning was a “remembering” morning.

I got up. I went to my recliner and leaned back. I prayed with sadness. I was dreaming about a family that once was. The husband is gone from this earth. The wife is not well. Of that, I’m sure, although I have no direct knowledge of her status. I know many years ago, a healthy, younger woman she was injured in a horrendous accident that disfigured her and left her with brain damage that followed her from then on. They had two sons and a daughter. They faced overwhelming challenges, and they never overcame them. They gradually sank into the background of life, at least from the church family that once lauded them.

I saw them only once after their exile. At that time, they still held themselves together despite all that happened. In the time since I realized they were not totally at fault for their fall. Those who shunned them hold part of the blame.

I’m not into bashing. Life doesn’t always deal a good hand. They got a bad hand.

As for me, I cannot put myself above the fray. I fell from grace as well. I went into darkness for a period of time. God brought me out of it and put me back on solid ground, and I will never let that experience pull me back down. I don’t know what would have happened had I not been surrounded by all my new friends and my second wife. I firmly believe that had I not had this happen, I would have been gone a long time ago myself. God gave me a new future with a renewed calling. I only wish this could have been their portion as well.