Morning Prayer

This morning's quiet time found me sitting on the front porch at the farm with my Bible and a hot cup of coffee.  One of my first thoughts was about the quietness and stillness of the morning.  After a few sips and a few verses, I started hearing sounds unseen in the silence.  There was the sound of rushing traffic over on the nearby strip of asphalt which carries those in a hurry to get somewhere.  There was the sharp thumping of a hammer on nails from a not too distant soon to be new neighbor.  I heard the distinctive noise of heavy equipment in reverse and the incessant and unmistakable whining of a chainsaw.   

Sometimes we wonder how we should pray.  Sometimes we wonder who needs prayer.  Oh, we have our list of friends and family and those whose names have been shared with us by burdened and desperate people.  This morning as the coffee cup reached the half full marker and the thin pages of the Word kept being turned by the wind, it came to me that I should pray for people who are hurrying to get somewhere. Some may be racing toward some unseen and unexpected crisis and without even knowing it, they may be in need of God's protection and care in the day unfolding.  Even from my morning perch where stillness prevails, it is obvious that many are out there today moving hurriedly to know not where.    

"Lord," I thought, "there are a lot of folks out there this morning in need of someone's prayer."  The guy in the distance with the hammer has his own home and is building a house for someone else's home.  As if in a vision two unknown homes were shown to me as places and people in need of blessing.  Finally, there was the guy with a chainsaw.  I have danced many days with one of those and I pray that he and the fellow working in reverse will go home safely once again.  There are many who earn their daily bread where danger and harm is a close companion.  After a spell I got up with the empty coffee cup and closed Bible amazed that I had wondered if there were souls around me in need of someone's prayers.