The field, My granddaughter, and The Prayers

For those of you who have read my blog in the past you know that part of my practice of life includes regular walks in the 85 acres of field and forrest so graciously shared by our neighbor, Bill.  The field is gorgeous in a whole new way now as spring has finally pushed winter aside.  The dogwoods and redbuds splash their color on the tree line, and the wild flowers are beginning to push up through what remains of the winter grass.  The views of the mountains seem to draw you toward them with an irresistible pull.  

It is my custom when I walk to say "The Prayers" as described in Acts 2:42.  The prayers as described in Acts most likely included the Psalms and other prayers for the early Church.  I have found the morning prayer as complied by Robert Benson in Venite, to be helpful to me. These prayers are old and have been prayed through the ages by the Church at regular times of the day and I find that as I discipline myself to pray them, even when I don’t feel like it or am not very attentive, they draw me into His presence.  The “morning prayers” are far less “me” centered and more focused on the One who is, and was, and forever will be.  After many years of reading, “saying”, my prayers each morning I was surprised to discover that they were fixed in my feeble brain and I can say them from memory as I walk... Thanks be to God.

Some of you know that my Son, his wife, and four very energetic grandchildren are staying with us for some weeks as they transition from their time in Guatemala and wait to close on a new house.  Mary Helen has consented to join me as we “go hunting” and walk.  How sweet it is to feel her hand in mine and to watch her alternately run ahead or lag behind as we discover turkey feathers, thus the “hunting for turkeys”, colorful flowers, the red cardinal on the post, or the turtle with yellow splotches on his back.  We agree the turtle must be a Vol fan since he has an orange nose.

The sweetest part has been to have her join me in saying The Prayers.  Truthfully she doesn’t understand much about them and I suspect is only marginally interested at age 6, but she listens as I explain the mystery of joining with the Church world wide in praying The Prayers.  God’s people around the world say these prayers every day on a given hour.  Mary Helen experienced time zones and how it made her time different from ours while she was in Guatemala and I could see her mind working as she tried to wrap her arms around the idea that if some of God’s people pray the Prayers on the same hour each day, as the day unfolds the world, as it turns, is bathed in the prayers of the Church.  How cool is that?  We can be party to all of that when we pray.

It is hard to describe how heart warming it is to say the words, “And now we pray for those with whom we share the journey, those who have been given to us and to whom we have been given...”  Here we pause and say the names of those who make up this circle of fellow travelers as God brings them to mind.  Mary Helen of course named her Daddy and Drew who are still in Guatemala, then remembered the rest of her family name by name, noting with joy on finishing their names that she had just prayed for her whole family.

All that except the turtle, who presented himself today, was the first day. Today as we walked we talked about the opening phrase... God said, “Let there be light,” We talked about gifts, that a gift is not deserved or owed.  If they were deserved or owed they would not be gifts, merely payment of an obligation.  Gifts are freely given and are precisely not an obligation of any kind.  We talked about how “Let there be light,” is a gift of a new day and how good it is of God that He gives another day...then she ran ahead, down the hill, full of glee calling for Papa to hurry.

I continued my prayers aloud as she swirled first ahead and then behind, but she was in step with her hand in mine when we reached, “And now we pray the prayers that Jesus taught those He called brothers and sisters and friends...”  Her sweet voice chimed in as we began, “Our father who is in heaven...”

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light,

And God saw that the light was good...

It is sooo good!

Thanks be to God!