A White Plastic Spoon

I have a brother in prison.  There.  I said it...with his permission.  I asked if I could write about him on my blog and he said, "Well, I am here and there is no denying it and it is no secret so, yes you can."
My brother is a Christian.  I say that upfront, because what I will share has everything to do with Christ.  He has been transferred three times in the past few months and is now at his final destination until his release in a few years.
Tommy and I went to see him last Saturday.  I know I have written about prisons before, but not concerning him.  He said that when they first moved him, they gave him a white plastic spoon and told him not to lose it because he would not get another.  At that time, he was in isolation for his protection and received his meals alone in his cell. He would look at the spoon and say, "Well, Lord, at least I have a spoon."  It made him grateful.
When they transferred him again, he packed it away, not because he thought he might not get another one, but because it had become a symbol to him.  At the next prison transfer station, they gave him a Styrofoam cup and told him not to lose it or he would have no other.  He looked at his cup and his spoon and said, "Well, Lord, now I have a cup and a spoon.  Thank You."  The cup did not survive the next move, but the spoon is still in his possession.
I say all of that to say this: God is teaching my brother about who he is and Who He is. This current prison is a working farm.  They even can their produce.  Every prisoner has a job and my brother's job is to get the leftovers from each meal (1500 men) and mash them down into food for the pigs.  It is the dirtiest, messiest job in the unit.  He said he has never worked so hard in his life. Someone told him that he could be moved to a lighter duty because of his age and he said, "No, I want to do this"...because he gets to be outside and see the sun go down.  He is grateful for an outside job.
Please do not misunderstand me.  My brother is not in prison undeservedly, but only a loving and merciful God would stay by the side of a guilty man readying pigs' slop for five hours a day in order to sustain him.  Only a good God would teach him to be truly grateful for a plastic spoon.  These are lessons my brother said he would not have learned had he not been where he is.
God is faithful to His children.  We can praise His holy name.  He is always with us, drawing us closer to Himself...even when we find ourselves with the pigs as the prodigal son did.
Luke 15:21-24   And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate. 
Philippians 1:6  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 
God will finish the work He started.