Approaching Christmas with Hope - Day 4Phil Togwell - 2 Dec 2010

God is our Hope

Starting on Saturday night, our little community hosted it’s first ‘Prayer & Potatoes’ weekend. You may (not) be surprised to find out that this involved us praying non-stop for 24 hours, and then eating a few tray-loads of jacket potatoes, piled high with cheese, coleslaw, beans and other tasty fillings.

My 7-year-old daughter, Angel, and I had signed up to pray an hour on Sunday morning. By then, the room was full of prayer... poems and scriptures, piles of stones, paintings and letter-printed names covered the walls and floors. Someone had created a tiny ‘cave’ in one corner, and someone else had cut out paper footprints leading to it. It felt... ‘full’.

While i was still acclimatising, trying to sense and read and take it all in, Angel squeezed past me, grabbed a thick marker pen, knelt down on the large sheets of paper covering the carpeted floor, and started writing. She didn’t hesitate. With confidence, she just got down to it... and wrote these simple words;

‘God is our hope’

I watched her for a while as she continued to write other prayers and statements - ‘God loves us and we love God’, ‘God make families happy and safe’ - and then I knelt on the floor beside her.

“Angel,” I asked, “who do you think needs to feel hope?” “My friend Caitlin,” she answered immediately, “because she gets sick at school every lunchtime. She can’t eat.” “OK, let’s pray for Caitlin then,” I said. So Angel wrote Caitlin’s name on a shell and placed it next to her ‘God is our hope’ prayer, and then she closed her eyes and prayed; “Thank you Jesus for a lovely day... I hope you can help Caitlin not to feel sick at lunchtime. Amen.”

We wrote on more stones and shells, and prayed for other friends during our hour together, and it only dawned on me later that my 7-year-old had led me in prayer, had led me quickly into the presence of God, where hope is found.

Incidentally, Caitlin wasn’t sick on Monday at all.

As we wait for Christmas, the celebration, the feast and the wonder of an incarnate God 24-7 Prayer will be posting a series of reflections to help us to wait well. We have asked friends from across the movement and around the world to creatively express themselves and focus us on the coming of Christ. This first week of advent uncovers Hope, and urges us to have hope, share hope and be hopeful as we approach Christmas together. Follow along with the 24-7 Prayer 'Approaching Advent' Calendar.