Why Pray?“But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”- David, 2Samuel 12:23 There aren’t many things more tragic than the death of a child. We had adopted BabyGirl into our hearts. We prayed for this infant, barely a day old. According to her mom’s physicians she
was doomed to die upon her entrance into the world. She didn’t die right away, and this gave many reason to hope for a glimpse of the miraculous. We prayed boldly. Her parents, not necessarily believers, grabbed hold of a prayer quilt that our prayer group gave to them, braced themselves and hoped against hope. Ruth brought to us BabyGirl’s story when she asked us to pray for her coworker. This mom’s grief might abate over time, but we guessed that for now must be made more intense because, as Ruth shared, there were two other women at the office who were pregnant at the same time as she was. They each now hold in their arms a healthy baby girl with a big bow strapped to their bald head. Ruth showed me pictures of herself holding each
one. Snapshots of exuberant joy over new life in the backdrop of indescribable loss make us very aware of how fragile and mysterious life is. How do we pray for a life to be spared in the backdrop of our mortality? While David’s circumstances differ from this particular situation, the story of his loss in 2 Samuel 12:14-31 does give us an insight about prayer itself: it humbles us, inviting us to follow God in the dark. The fact that David washed his face, had dinner, went to console his wife, and had more children is not an outline on how to grieve or not grieve. While we are not given much in regards to his interior life’s struggle at that moment of deep loss, David’s actions show his going on with his life, conveying acceptance with the way things turned out despite his most fervent prayers. Why pray as a community of believers when there is no guarantee that we will always see the miracle we seek with our own eyes right away? Why learn about prayer? Becoming good at praying doesn’t prepare us
for how to get "yes answers" from the Lord. Becoming good at praying prepares us to answer “yes, Lord”-no matter what, even when things don’t turn out the way we had wished. Prayer prepares us to “see” God, even beyond our tears. “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,
that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,or engraved in rock forever! I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed,yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” -Job, Book of Job 19:22-25. by Sabine Vatel, Discipleship/GROW Group Pastor
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