We'll be heading to the hospital in a few hours to visit our son as he continues down (up?) the difficult road after brain surgery on Tuesday. We've been overwhelmed with the prayers and kindness of his friends, our friends and total strangers. A neighbor I don’t know well just dropped by with a quiche for supper. It is a huge comfort!
So I want to tell you a story from way back--maybe 1987, don't remember for sure. As the mother of teens, so close in age and so beautiful people used to think they were twins, I was at my wit's end and couldn't pray. So in addition to feeling like a total failure as a mother, I assumed I wasn't being a very good Christian either. No prayer could slip pass my clenched teeth.
At church one Sunday I ran into Judy Gibeaut and in about 30 seconds summed up my rage and frustration. She gave me a hug, told me not to worry about praying, that she'd do it for me so I could just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. I think she did call it intercessory prayer, but whatever she said, I've never forgotten it.
I'm not doing much praying since October 1 when this hit us like a ton of bricks, so we're relying on others. After so many years of Sunday worship, baptisms, Bible school, Sunday School, funerals and weddings, I think I've got the "Lord's Prayer" [Our Father] down pat--not very good at memorizing. Tertullian, 2nd-3rd century theologian, wrote that the Our Father was a summary of the Gospel so we can cover a lot of territory with that! https://sites.google.com/site/aquinasstudybible/home/matthew-commentary/tertullian-on-the-our-father
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