Penny and I got into the car to go to the hospital yesterday at noon. Peter buckled her into her seat, kissed her on the forehead, and said, "I'll see you tonight, beautiful girl."
"Pray, Dad," she replied.
The night before, she had a hard time falling asleep.
"Are you afraid, Mom?"
"No, sweetie, I'm not afraid. Are you?"
"No." Pause. And then, "I'm scared, Mom."
"Oh, sweetie. I'm sorry you're scared. Do you want to pray?"
We prayed for a long time and then she asked for her dad. When he left, she was falling asleep muttering, "Trust Jesus. Trust Jesus."
So her dad prayed with her before we drove away. A few hours later she had two quick surgeries, twenty five minutes total, and emerged with tubes in her ears and stints in her tear ducts so they'll stay open, we hope, from now on. She has a black eye on one side, and when I first got to her, blood drained out of her nose. She cried as I held her and rocked her and sang to her. But within an hour, she was happily eating pretzels (the snack she had been denied at school that morning) and telling me about her other ailments. "My leg is broken, Mom. Need an xray!" Over the course of the car ride home, we "fixed" two broken legs, a hurt tummy, a neck wound, and an undisclosed issue involving her armpit.
She's back at school today, happy as can be.
Looking back, I hope that we taught her something about prayer. I hope we didn't teach her that it's a magic trick, and I hope we didn't teach her that she isn't supposed to have emotions like fear or sadness or hurt. I hope she knew something of God's comfort and presence and strength in the midst of her fear.
She taught me too. It was a simple teaching, one reminiscent of Jesus. Penny reminded me to pray when I'm afraid. Pray with other people, people I trust, people who love me. She reminded me that God receives the simplest requests, the prayers of a child.
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5 comments:
I am so thankful I can now picture her sweet little serious face as she teaches you about prayer, about life.
I just spoke on this very message on Sunday at church. My parents had us learn Ps 56:3 "When I am afraid, I will trust in you." when I was 6 and my brother was 4. We were having a tough year.
I love having the verse in me, it continues to teach me about the right things to do with fear. David wrote it, spoke it out loud and entrusted it to God. When I speak my fears out loud, and work at trusting God with them, peace breaks in. Not like magic. But I look back and think that my life is not marked by fear, even in hard circumstances.
This made me cry.
Sweet Penny! She teaches us so much...because you have taught her!... :)
Thank you, AJ.
What a beautiful story
Sorry it's taken me so long to respond here. Just wanted to thank you all for commenting and affirming the God who enters into our fears, and takes them for us not because the scary thing disappears, but because God is worth trusting. Blessings to you all!
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