Miraculous Reflections

52 Week Project 2012 ~ 11/52

"The prayer of a Christian," J.I. Packer has written, "is not an attempt to force God's hand, but a humble acknowledgement of helplessness and dependence." 

I took this picture for my 52 Week Project at the beginning of spring break, which sadly, is soon coming to an end. The setting sun's reflection on this pond captivated me and my sister Lauren, and we tried snapping as many shots as we could of its marvelous beauty. You should've seen us. Our excitement was just a little extreme. Running the length of the pond, finding cool angles of sun glare, reaching high and squatting down low for the perfect picture. We were awestruck by the pond's reflection of the sun, the blue sky and sweeping clouds, the lone tree, the distant horizon of country lands. It looked beautiful--a perfect end to our day's adventure. 

Whenever I see beauty like this, the kind that makes me speechless, I always try to stop and listen for what it has to say. Beauty of this magnitude surely speaks of that which is far beyond what our finite minds can fully understand, but it nonetheless provides us with glimpses of God's blessings in disguise. 

Just as the still water in this pond can accurately reflect its surroundings when the sun shines down upon it, we can more accurately reflect God's character when we come to God in prayer--not manipulative prayer, which is more like magic, but true prayer--as Jesus modeled for us. When we see prayer as an effect of or our response to God's power, and not just a cause of it, we will experience significant growth and a sensitivity to God's presence. He will quiet our worries, still the rushing waters of our souls, and bring peace to our inmost places. God calls us to have a child-like faith because through that perspective, we increase our ability to reflect his will, his heart, his desires. In this way, we can agree that the act of prayer itself is the fulfillment of its purpose. 

With this in mind, we need not slip into a pit of despair when it seems God has not answered our prayers. The truth is, God always answers prayers. The question is, whether or not we recognize and accept his answers, especially when they're different than what we'd like or expect. If we adopt a child-like faith, though, and use prayer as a "humble acknowledgement of [our] helplessness and dependence," even an answer of "no" or a "wait" can work a miracle in our lives. This miracle may not be physical healing, material wealth, or academic success; rather, we can experience spiritual healing and blessing by allowing God to transform our will to look more like his. 

Just like Lauren and I were so amazed at the reflection in the pond, I'm also amazed at how God transforms the hearts of his children so that they can reflect his image more clearly. Often times this means refusing to give them something that they ask for because He knows it's not as good as what he really wants to offer them. As children so often do, we get confused and mad, some of us throw temper tantrums and act out in response to God's answer of "no." After we calm ourselves down, we know we can trust that God has our best interest in mind because he loves us more than anything we can imagine, he's in the process of making us even more beautiful, and desires for us to each reflect the likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ, who is, in himself, the essence of beauty.