Carl’s Jr. becomes the local playground when I want to eat, let Gabby play, and be able to share the time with a friend of my own. The Carl’s Jr. we frequent has an indoor play area, tables close enough to watch Gabby play and even chat with her as she climbs, tunnels, and pretends, and enjoys the company of her very small newfound friend. When Gabby slows down enough, or is hungry enough, she will stop to eat and three of us join hands to pray, asking Gabby whose turn it is. Sometimes she wants to pray herself and sometimes she chooses one of the big people. Today she chose Dawn. Dawn knows to pray with the simplicity of a child, but neither Dawn nor I are always fully prepared for Gabby’s “prompts.” Usually, we are reminded to pray for Mommy and Daddy and Arianna or her “owie,” but today she reminded us of her dog, Wyatt, and then immediately thought of the little frog at school. Dawn followed her prompts, but as she prayed for the little frog, Gabby forthrightly exclaimed the frog was dead and with her repetition, seemed to want us to know the veracity of the little frog’s death, but she also wanted to be sure we still prayed for the little frog. And we did. Needless to say, it was the open heart of a four-year-old actively engaged in wanting God to listen even though the big people found both truth and humor in her openness. Four-year-olds do bring humor to our lives, a humor we often need to slow down the busyness or stress of a day, but within the truth of what Gabby did is truth for all the big people too.
Gabby’s open heart is what she brought to God. Whether or not we found significance in her concerns, God did, and He found more significance in the fact that she just wanted Him to listen. Thankfully, Gabby is secure in the love of her Mommy and her Daddy, and her greatest concerns are owie’s and puppies and little frogs. Most of us have lived long enough to know our hearts are full with sooooo much more – our fears, our failures, our losses, our inadequacies, relationships, finances, schedules, prodigals, declining health – our own or the health of one we love – and the list goes on. Sometimes our openness is afraid of repetition. Sometimes we question the seeming absence or silence of God, and our hearts stay aloof. Our pride and self-sufficiency get in the way. And sometimes, the need is so great, and the heart has no words to speak, silenced by a depth of emotion and emptiness. Jesus’ encouragement for us to become as little children needs to be embraced even when we pray. What does your heart hold? If you fully opened it to God without hesitancy, without wondering how appropriate it was to pray for what others may not find significant, but you do, without hiding the things you feel believers are shamed or stigmatized by, without sorting through a prayer list that can make prayer mechanical, the fulfilling of a duty – if you fully opened your heart to God when you pray, what would you pray???? And more importantly, how much would your praying bring you the reality of God’s presence, the assurance of His compassionate love, the encouragement that He is always, always the welcoming Father, even when we fail???? And when the words have been silenced, could you vulnerably pray, “Oh, God, this is my heart........... I don’t even know how to pray.”
Over and over, the Psalms reveal the open heart of the psalmist, a heart like Gabby’s, a heart that will find the heart of our God. Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.
– Bev
(Related Bible reading: Psalm 62:1,2,5-8)
