Essays, Art and Plays by Dan

Today, as every day, the prayers arrived before dawn.

They came riding on tears, shouts, hospital monitors, prison walls, kitchen tables, and sleepless pillows. Some were wrapped in elegant theology. Others arrived as a single exhausted word:

“Help.”

A little boy asked me to find his lost dog. A student prayed for a passing grade. A surgeon prayed that her hands would not tremble. A woman in a refugee camp prayed for a better day.

I listened to them all.

An old man in El Salvador sat beneath the shade of a mango tree. He did not ask for wealth or healing. He simply prayed, “Gracias Dios mio por un dia tan precioso.”

And in Kenya, a young woman walked before dawn toward a crowded market. She prayed for work and for her mother’s health. Yet before ending her prayer she added, “And if someone else is hurting just like me, help them too.” I smiled when I heard that.

Many imagine that the loudest prayers are easiest to hear. They are mistaken. The prayers spoken through silent tears, and breaking hearts often arrive with the greatest clarity.

One man thanked me for a full moon he almost missed. I lingered over that prayer.

Another demanded answers for his suffering. I did not get angry.

Millions prayed for things to change.

A few prayed for themselves to change. Those prayers always catch my attention.

Children ask impossible questions. Saints offer impossible hopes. Skeptics addressed their words to “Whoever might be listening.” I listened anyway.

I heard prayers in every language ever spoken and many that have never been written. I heard songs disguised as prayers and prayers disguised as curses.

I kept every one.

Some prayers I answered with open doors.

Some with closed doors.

Some with waiting.

The waiting is the part they understand least.

Before nightfall, millions thanked me for victories. Millions blamed me for defeats. Billions forgot me entirely.

Now the earth turns toward darkness again. Soon another tide of prayers will rise from the sleeping world. Some will be noble. Some selfish. Some confused. Some beautiful.

I will listen to every one.

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