A Child's Cries and Our Prayers

It struck me early one morning as my two year old daughter was calling for me that there are parallels between her sometimes urgent cries, our prayers, and God’s response to those prayers.

My daughter sometimes cries with great fervor when she wakes up in the morning, perhaps because of strongly perceived distress on her part, or perhaps because she is uncertain she’ll receive a response. In reality, things are rarely as serious as her cries would indicate and never any doubt that I’ll come quickly.

The same is true of our prayers. We often feel much more distressed than circumstances warrant and sometimes doubt that God will respond. As is the case with my daughter’s cries, neither is usually true. In fact, just as I am already on my way to respond to my daughter’s cries before she knows it, God is preparing answers to our prayers before we know that He’s at work.

(Other images about prayer were posted at Images from God on September 17, 17.1, 17.2, October 8 and 17, November 13 and 19, 2004 and May 27, 2005.)