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I really don’t know why God answers some prayers and some He
appears to ignore.
As a parent, I leave a number of prayers of my children
unanswered.
Like,
Mom, is it O.K. if I
kill my sister? Or,
Why can’t I play with the butterfly knife? Or even,
But I am starving, why
can’t I have raspberry-cheese roll five minutes before dinner?
Clearly, I am a mean parent.
If I was a good parent, all my children’s prayers would be answered with
unequivocal “YES!”
Still, some prayers appear to demand answers.
Take Jesus. He was God’s good kid. His only good kid. Still,
He prayed, and at least one of His prayers seemed to fall flat on God’s ears.
Father, if you are willing,remove this cup from me…
This is where we stumble upon mystery. This is where we fall headlong into a mystery.
A mystery of trust even when it hurts.
A mystery of hope even when everything seems hopeless.
This is where the sidewalk ends and faith-thicket
begins.
Where the beach ends and ocean
begins.
Where the roof ends and sky
begins.
But, I digress again.
I have no idea why God decided to answer that prayer of
mine:
God, You who created
this world out of NOTHING, make me a gardener.
Maybe because the impossible is His specialty... ?
Maybe He has a soft spot for gardening, as that’s the first
thing we see Him do after the amazing feat of creation – He plants a garden!
I have no idea.
Or, perhaps, there is always a long line of people praying to God to change the world by making them successful missionaries, preachers, pundits, experts, know-it-alls, writers, talkers, speakers, politicians....
... and the line is woefully short of those brought to such despair that they are willing to let go of who they thought they were in order to allow God to change their own pathetically insignificant tiny back yard....I don't know....
But, for whatever reason, that tiny little acorn prayer
landed on the good soft soil of God’s gardener’s heart, and He said,
I’ll take THIS one!
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