ON PRAYER

My mum tells me that when I was little I was very much like 'Christopher Robin" in the way I prayed.

She overheard me one night, asking God to 'come back' because I had forgotten to mention

something during my prayers.

Read the poem I have included below and listen to the clip from Youtube.

I was listening earlier to BBC Radio Essex and the played a version of this.

It made me quite nostalgic. However this is is not entitled "on Prayer" for nothing.

I will make some comments and observations, a bit further down this blog.

VESPERS

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,

Droops on the little hands little gold head.

Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!

Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.

Wasn't it fun in the bath to-night?

The cold's so cold and the hot's so hot.

Oh! God bless Daddy--I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,

I can see Nanny's dressing -gown on the door.

It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.

Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,

And pull the hood right over my head,

And I shut my eyes, and curl up small,

And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! Thank-you, God for a lovely day.

And what was the other I had to say?

I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?

Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.

Little Boy kneels, at the foot of the bed,

Droops on the littel hands little gold head.

Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!

Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

What is prayer? Can we learn ANYTHING from this little poem? I believe there is something that we can learn. Children pray with such sincerity and belief. We as adults can learn to view as children do. Yes - his mind does wonder a bit - and I think that was the point of A.A. Milne's poem, but at the same time, we have a loving God, who knows that we have wondering minds as well. I believe he forgives that human weakness, and his happy that we want to spend time talking to Him.

We can talk to God about ANYTHING, and we can talk to him at ANY TIME. We don't need to wait for the end of the day, and certainly shouldn't wait until Sunday when we're 'in Church'. Little Children stayu close to their parents - they don't (or shouldn't wonder off without their parent's knowledge. - If We stay close to Jesus, that we can at any moment, turn to him and ask him for help or just praise him for being such a wonderful friend, then prayer will never be far from our lips.

I was blessed to be able to watch The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett on Friday Night. It was an excellent production put on by the Woodhouse Players. In one particularly scary moment, (There was a burglar in the building below their hiding place), Mrs Frank prayed by using, if my memory serves me right Psalm 46, and Psalm 121.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

One touching part of the play, was where they were celebrating Channukkah, and Anne went out of her way to find a gift of some sort for each of the people in their hiding place - even for the rather difficult Mr. Dussel, the elderly dentist whom the Frank family had taken in. Can you imagine being cooped up in a small loft for three years in fear fr your lives. Not allowed to make a sound or move during the day because you might be discovered by the workers in the building below.

I am not 100% sure about Ps 46 being in the play, but I know Psalm 121 was read but what word appears in both places? HELP - Our Help comes from the Lord. He is a very present help - He is there the moment we need him. He is watching over us - in fact in Psalm 121 - in verses 3 & 4 it says:

He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

4indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

We can be assured, just as little children can have confidence that their mum or dad is not far away, that our Father, is watching over us and loves us and makes sure we are safe. We can talk to him at any time. A little child, who wakes up in the night, knows that no matter the hour, they can go to their Mum or dad and they will wake up and attend the child. In the play, because of the awful situation the family found itself in, Anne experienced some terrifying nightmares - her mother and father ran to comfort her and calm her down and reassure her.

Well, just as it says in Psalm, the moon will not harm us by night. Actually, as we are comemorating the 40th anniversary of the 'moon landing' this is quite apt. We now know that the moon could not harm us at all, but sometimes we get very worked up over imaginary dangers and enemies. Little children often fear the 'bogey man' or 'monsters' or 'ghosts'. Adults may laugh at that - and sometimes exascerbate the problem by playing on those fears. (This is something I would not encourage.) However adults have their own imaginary fears - we work up in our minds whole disastrous scenarios, and yet we forget to trust our heavenly father.

Recently an Englishman went missing in the Australian outback, and was not found for about two weeks - people thought he was dead, but he was found alive. We haven't heard the full story yet, but I understand he fed himself from what he could forage. At one point he saw the search helicopter fly over and he waved madly, but they did not see him, and he almost gave up hope of ever being found. However he was found. I wonder if he prayed at all during that time?

You may be in a good place, having everything you need - being very content - no reason to ignore the Lord. Praise and rejoice and thank God for keeping you in that good place.

Put simply, the Word of God, says Pray without ceasing. That means don't give up. Give thanks in all things. And remember to be like a little child in your prayers and your relationship with God.