Talking to Abba...

Is there a prayer

Too audacious?

          Too courageous?

Have we not bold

And Pressing need?

          Presumptuous Desire?

If God permits these,

Certainly He encourages

Us to bring them to Him

To Handle and provide!

He is our Father—

And it is the task of a father

To provide for the needs of

The children

And his delight

To respond to their desires!

But when the Father

Knows the desire to be

Destructive or

Better met by another path.

We must then yield;

Acquiescing to His more complete

          Comprehension.

Nothing pleases our Father

More than when His children

Come in trust-or

                     Desperation-

                            without delay

Bearing their requests

In the chalice of faith

To lift to their Provider

          To be filled.

The sooner and the more

Persistently we come,

The more He is pleasured.

When we walk away from

A period of panicked prayer

          In calm contentment

Knowing

That the response

          Is already realized;

Ready

          To await its arrival,

We delight our Father

With the artlessness of our Trust.

When we persist through

Long periods of seeming silence

          And apparent deafness

          To our need,

Plowing through doubt;

          Barring our heart to despair;

We honor Him—

          And He strengthens us. 

As we proceed

Through long and arduous days,

                         With our hearts continually

                                     Lifted in expectation

                                 Or our minds occupied in

            Conversation with our Creator,

We grow more familiar

          With His Voice;

More alert to His hand

          As it moves on our behalf.

It is then that we can                                   

Learn—and be moved to—            

A gratitude that

                       Suffuses our spirits

   With the delight of

                               Perceiving His Holy Hand

     As it moves through

                                Our days—

                                                          Never loosening its grip.

There is nothing else

Like the companionship of a father:

The perfect combination

          Of wisdom,

provision 

and Amicable companionship.

by

Cynthia Lott Vogel

all rights reserved

10/21/08