Wednesday, November 14, 2012

When the probability is low...

I remember the day on a family vacation, we were all hanging out by a beautiful lake. So distracted by the scenery, it must have slippedthrough our minds to check our belongings before we left the picnic area. We were staying with friends in Vermont, and it wasn’t until much later that we realized the video camera was gone. Tracing our steps back to that picnic area, we searched with flashlights under the moonlight.

Nothing.

I remember that sense of despair as we got back to their house. The probability was next to zero that we’d ever see it again. I tried comforting my mom, who was the one behind the camera, freezing all the moments in time. The video camera wasn’t that important, it was the hours of filming she had done, still in the camera bag. We’d never get to re-live them years down the road.

Around the kitchen sink all of us grabbed hands and prayed. Yes. Even for a video camera. God, if there is any way for us to find this again, please help us. It’s gonna be miracle. Only you can do this.

Wherever I am, God is awake. Prayer is not a formula, it’s not a complex style that you have to stand on one foot and look in one direction. He knows where you at, and He wants to commune with you. “You have not because you ask not.”

Then our friends had an idea. They got up early the next morning and made signs to post in the local diners and coffee shops. If someone had seen it or picked it up, they could call the number. Kind of like a missing cat sign you see on the neighborhood light pole. I thought about the slim chances of anyone being at the lake AND at the restaurant the very next day.

We left Vermont and headed home. While unpacking and settling back in, my dad checked the voicemail messages. It was a man with a deep voice talking about a sign at the diner for a missing camera. He found it at a lake and took it home, hoping to find a way to get it back to the owner. He left his number and said to call him back.

We were all in complete shock.

The probability WAS close to zero, yet God doesn’t look at probabilities. We got our videocamera back and I learned that there is no such thing as a petty prayer. You can come to Him about everything. Prayer is staying connected to Him.

He won’t always answer us the way we think would be best, but the essence of our journey with Him is trust.

A prayerful life is a powerful life.

-Becca