Answered Prayers

“Please” comes so much more automatically to my lips than “thank you.”

My list of hopes and special requests goes on, ad infinitum, and I impose on the lavish grace of God by asking… and asking… and asking.

Some weeks (weeks like this week, for example) the horrors of loss and destruction and grief in the Big Out There can keep my “please” prayers edgy – scared – a latent “how could you let this happen?!?” in the background of my petitions.

But even when circumstances look stable, even when my health is good and my loved ones are safe and there is food on my table and a song in my heart, even then – my “pleases” outnumber my “thank yous.”

I think about how it thrills my heart to hear my own children say, “thank you.”

And I am ashamed by how frequently I cheat my heavenly Father of that thrill by receiving good gifts without comment.

Really, without notice.

There is a story in scripture about a miracle of healing Jesus worked for a group of lepers. Jesus always responded to the “pleases” of people; that responsiveness and compassion are core his characteristics. In this case, though, Jesus makes a point about the spiritual significance of a “thank you” that actually completed the miracle which the “please” had prompted:

¹¹Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
¹⁷Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:11 – 17

It strikes me that Jesus’s last commendation – “your faith has made you well” – applied more to the former leper’s lavish gratitude than to his cleansed skin.

The other nine, ungrateful as they were, received the same physical cleansing as the Samaritan.

Only the Samaritan – with his shouted praises to God and his humble thanks at Jesus’s feet – was identified by the Lord as “having been made well.”

We are all struggling, I think, with too many “please” prayers right now. The Afghan situation. The pandemic that won’t go away. The frayed tempers and cynicism that has infected so much of our public discourse. So many “please” prayers to God – so much “how could you let this happen?!?” in the background of our petitions.

In the interest of recalling us to faith that has the power make us truly, fully well, I would like to share with you two huge “thank you” prayers from the last ten days.

Answers to longstanding prayers are perhaps the sweetest of all of God’s “yes” answers; anticipation (and long-suffering) has a way of making gratitude all the more sharp and acute.

(I wonder – had the Samaritan been a leper the longest? Maybe? Or had his lifelong “outsider” status as a Samaritan made “cleansing” a whole different level of gift for him?)

I invite you: no matter how long the list of your “please” prayers today, won’t you join me in thanking God for these amazing gifts?

Story #1: A Gift of Healing

Some months back, I wrote about the challenge of living with hope in broken bodies, and I alluded to the tragic suffering of several young girls I know and love. One of them, Julia, a year older than my JoJo, had been experiencing crippling daily pain since last fall. The doctors, mostly mystified, had settled on a diagnosis of a viral infection that would have to “flame itself out.” They predicted several years of suffering. Therapies and medicines brought only slight, temporary relief. Julia bore the struggle bravely, but her quality of life and her capacity for joy were hugely diminished as she combatted ongoing physical agony. I was one of many people who were praying daily for a miracle of healing. And then… last week… the miracle occurred! One morning, the pain was diminished to its lowest level since the virus took hold; the next morning – NO PAIN! Praise God!

Julia’s words in her Bible are as follows:

Thank you, Jesus!

Story #2 A Gift of Transformation

Stephen, my Sunday School brother, was also featured in the broken bodies blog last spring. He was the Covid hero / veteran of NYC “death wards” who contracted Covid, and then suffered long Covid, himself. Months and months of illness and unemployment. A slow, grueling return to baseline health, but continued frustration (and financial crisis) as the unemployment persisted. Even before the Covid saga, Stephen had voiced uncertainty about going back to clinical practice, but also uncertainty about what else he could do to support his family adequately. After months of no offers, he was desperate for a job – any job. God’s miraculous solution was unveiled last week: not just a new job, but a whole new vocation! Stephen will be a professor – teaching others to do what he has so ably been doing all these years – able to pour his significant gifts as a communicator and encourager into a new generation of medical professionals.

Thank you, Jesus!

The photos in today’s blog were taken by my Sunday School sister, Helen. They constitute a visual documentary of Helen’s “thank you” habit. Her early morning walks are, she tells me, her favorite time of day with God, because He shows her beautiful things and she tells him how much she appreciates them, and Him.