If ever there was a man who had reason to be bitter and faithless it was Patrick. Born in a comfortable coastal community he enjoyed the best his era could offer – until that day when at 16, with his future bright ahead of him, he was roughly torn from his genteel existence and thrust into a rude world. It was not so far away yet it was an entirely different dimension of dangerous men with devilish ideas. He was sentenced to potentially mind numbing isolation, exposed to the elements with only wet silent sheep for company. There appeared no way out of his slavery.
His captors had his body but in the end they could not reach his soul. He did not belong to them. His Deliverer would come in time. Perhaps a longer time than some would have continued to wait and hope for. Years would pass with no sign of relief in sight. Yet, when once more his feet stood on free soil, his thoughts wandered right back to those he left. He knew they were enslaved in far deeper ways than he had been. He resolved to risk all to bring light to dark places and as a result a nation was changed.
We may not change nations. (Though who can say?) Some days we may not even feel we are changing our own small universe in a significant way. It those hours we might remember this man. Like him, we might remember to whom we belong, to whom our children belong. We might propose to wait prayerfully, hopeful, even when solutions do not present themselves readily, resolved to bring a bit of light to dark places every day.
(images from Ireland 2011)
Starry Sky Journal 
Beautiful reflection. Thank you! It is a good reminder for me.