"Christ the King"

The man's hair was grey and straggly. His shoulders looked as if they were carrying the weight of the world on them. Perhaps they were bearing the weight of HIS own world. He had tried to walk across the busy road with a garbage bag filled with crushed soda and beer cans. He didn't make it. His bag broke and out spilled his treasure of crushed cans. The traffic was rush-hour, going-home traffic. He stood on the curb, out of danger and watched car after car drive over the cans and around the cans. And then it happened. A car stopped. Emergency lights were turned on. A man in a dark suit stepped out of the car and held his hands up to stop the traffic ... and together a man with the grey straggly hair and a man in a dark suit picked up cans.

I shared this moment with a friend and he quoted Matthew 25:35-36 with a minor addition:
“… for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. I was broke and you picked up crushed soda and beer cans.”

Blessed is she who witnessed Jesus in a dark suit ... or was it Jesus with grey straggly hair? Blessed is she, either way! Blessed is she, for she has witnessed the Holy, dressed as Christ, the King!

"Every Breath, A Prayer"

When I was very young, my mother sent me to a Baptist church to be a part of ‘Girls Auxiliary’. My memories are quite vague of those times. Only the fears of the unknowns and of being made to speak aloud are still very clear to me. I do remember that we sat in a circle and opened each meeting with sentence-prayers of thankfulness. That was a great source of anxiety for me. I wasn’t sure where my thankfulnesses were hiding but I did know that the words for just one sentence were hiding with them. So, I came up with the words “thank you for the trees” and repeated that one sentence at the opening of each meeting. I was indeed thankful for the trees, one in particular, that had a most perfect branch for sitting … and hiding … and peering out into the world so that I might see but not be seen. Yes, “thank you for the trees” seemed just the right sentence-prayer for me until, at one meeting, a friend of mine decided to use those words as HER sentence-prayer. There was no other sentence-prayer, no other words of thankfulness, that I could find within me at such short notice, so I quietly said, “Pass.” At that moment, I wished that the floor would have broken apart and swallowed me. Eyes opened and all heads turned toward me.

Life has changed for me. I am not quite as fear-filled (but I do still struggle with praying out loud on a moment’s notice). There are times when I find refuge apart from others and, once again, “thank you for the trees” seems to be an appropriate prayer. I have found that in these days of November, when others were posting on Facebook their ‘Daily Thanksgiving’, I was transported back to the circle of little girls, wondering why I couldn’t put into words just one day’s worth of thanksgivings.

It is in this wondering, in my questioning, in my seeking for words of thanksgivings when I realize that every single breath I take is a perfectly worded prayer to my LORD. There are no stares from others, for the words are there as I inhale. There are no giggles directed my way, for my thankfulness exhales to the One who cherished the few words that I could find to pray as a child and who places an overabundance of them within me now. I inhale God's Great Love and exhale my love in return. I inhale grace and exhale praise.

Inhale … Exhale … Every breath, a prayer of thanksgiving.