Tuesday, October 1, 2002
Tuesday, October 1, 2002
And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make
known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted.
One day in 1937 Kathryn Lawes was killed in a car
accident. Next day her body lay in a casket in a house a quarter
of a mile outside the prison wall. The acting warden found
hundreds of prisoners crowded around the main gate. He knew what
they wanted. He said to them, "I'm going to trust you, boys. You
can go to the house." Then he opened the gate. No count was
taken. No guards were posted. That night every single man
returned to prison.
The acting warden was wise. He knew that those convicts
needed some means of expressing their appreciation for what
Kathryn Lawes had meant to them. They expressed that appreciation
not only in paying their respects before her casket but even more
so by living up to her trust by returning to their cells that
evening. Expressing thanks enhances our character. Giving thanks to God enhances our
spirits.
(Isaiah 12.4
NRSV)
In 1920 Lewis Lawes was made warden of Sing Sing prison.
Conditions there were frightful in those days, and Lawes was
later to become famous for the humanitarian reforms he
instituted. Lawes gave much of the credit, however, to his wife,
Kathryn. Kathryn Lawes treated the prisoners as human beings. She
would take her three small children and sit with them, gangsters,
murderers, racketeers and the rest, while they played baseball
and basketball. When people asked her if she was afraid she
replied, "We care for the boys and they care for us." She found a
blind prisoner in utter despair, so she had him taught Braille
and brought in Braille books for him to read. She learned sign
language to talk with a deaf-mute prisoner.
Dear God, thank you for all the ways you have blessed, challenged and touch my life. Amen.
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