From the crayons of infants...?
We love hearing stories of whole families getting involved in our ENOUGH prayer nights. The youngest among us often have more faith than we jaded adults, and their simple prayers and responses can be a huge encouragement - sometimes unexpectedly, as Pete Foster explains:
"Ah, how cute - 4-year-old Oliver has drawn a little scribble for us,” I thought, as I picked up one of the stack of prayer cards we received after the ENOUGH prayer night in July last year.
We - a group of around 15 believers from 9 different countries - had been gathering in Pardubice, Czech Republic for nearly three years building relationships and at the time were seeking the Lord to discern whether he was calling us to plant a church there. When the prayer cards began to arrive we set aside an afternoon to read them together and hear what God might be saying.
The prayer cards were really encouraging with loads of prayers, words and Bible verses. Often we’d be overwhelmed at the thought that so many people had been praying for us and it bought a tear to the eye. There was also a theme about rainbows and we’d had two unusually vivid rainbows in the last week.
And then we got to Oliver's. What first appeared to be just a scribble was, when I read the caption, intended to represent a robot. Interestingly, robot is one of the very few English words that originated in the Czech language. It was invented by Karel Čapek in his 1920 science fiction play 'Rossum's Universal Robots', and it means 'servant'.
Did Oliver know this when he drew his picture for us? Almost certainly not. Perhaps robots are his favourite thing. Perhaps it was just a random word that popped into his mind when his mum asked what he had drawn. We'll probably never know. What I can say is that of all the things little boys like to draw, he picked the one that meant something to us, and we were encouraged in our commitment to be servants to this community God has called us to.
The next ENOUGH is coming up soon (23 March). Parents, if you're wondering whether or not to take your kids with you, or whether to involve them in prayer afterwards, let this story encourage you that God can and does speak through even the 'least of these'.
“From the lips [and crayons?] of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise.” - Matthew 21:16