The Power of Prayer

Although we are just travelers here, we never walk alone.

Right after Thanksgiving, my computer crashed. I mean crashed as in dead and never coming back. One minute it was on the internet and the next it was dead. After several stern lectures from my little brother about not keeping my hard drive backed up, he was able to salvage most of my files. I reluctantly ordered a new one on a Black Friday deal which didn’t arrive until the first week of January.

Meanwhile, on Black Friday, our family dog got really sick. She’s elderly, but still has a ton of spunk and we all adore her. It was touch and go for about a week and we weren’t sure if she would make it. It was kind of a surreal week for me. Everyone around me was talking about their Thanksgiving break and their Christmas plans and all I could think about was our dog. My hubby and I have become Empty Nesters this year and that little dog helps to fill a void. It turned out to be pancreatitis and she finally got better. We were so very thankful.

Things were looking up and my two college kids arrived safely home for Christmas. We were on the way to the lighting of our town Christmas tree when I got a call from a dear friend telling me she had breast cancer. I was shocked. We talked for a while. Her prognosis was good and her spirits were high, but it was hard to reconcile all of the celebration around that huge tree, all of the happiness, with that dark cloud of news.

The week before Christmas, a sweet friend at work learned that her young, very active, son, had a stroke and was asking for prayers. Once again, it seemed difficult to reconcile the joy of Christmas with the pain the people around me were experiencing. My heart went out to them as my prayers went up for them.

As God’s people, we know that the power of prayer can change situations as well as the heart of the one who prays. We know this because we have all been on both sides of prayer. We have prayed and been prayed for and we have all had our hearts broken.

Pain and joy live side by side on this side of eternity. As we travel through here, we will always be witnesses and recipients of both, but the good news is we never walk alone. A baby in a manger made sure of that. One day we will be in a place where there’s only joy.

Until then we should celebrate the good times and hold onto our faith in the bad times and find as many prayer warriors as we can to join us along the way. Those people are truly gifts.

This Christmas reminded me of the gift of our faith family. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Happy New Year (a couple of weeks late!)
Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂