Among my colleagues these days, I am considered to be one of the senior pastors. I’ve been around for a long time and I have collected a brain full of memories and enough stories to add my two cents worth to almost every conversation. Sometimes, when I am with my peers, I have to consciously hold myself back from the stories that begin with “You think that’s something! Let me tell you about the time . . .” I know better in my brain and occasionally I have the maturity to show some restraint and keep my mouth shut.

Still, even with decades of experience under my belt, there are times when I discover that I’ve been answering questions the wrong way. It isn’t that I’m intentionally dishonest. It isn’t even that I am speaking untruth. It is just that I don’t always know the real answers and I rush to say something and end up saying something that isn’t really the right thing.

Let me give you an example from yesterday.

For several years, from time to time, I get a question about the prayer shawls and the prayer bears that fill a cabinet in the church parlor. The question is usually something like: “Don’t we give this out any more?” “Why are there so many in the cabinet?” or even, “ Do we do the prayer shawl ministry any more?” Those asking the question seem to know in general about the prayer shawl and prayer bear ministries, but look at the full cabinet as if the shawls we blessed in worship a few years ago are the ones that are still in the cabinet.

So my answer to that question is usually something like, “Our knitters and crocheters are so generous and so productive that sometimes the shawls and bears get ahead of our distribution process.”

Here is what I’ll be answering in the future: “Isn’t it wonderful that God has blessed us with such generous knitters and crocheters? You never know when some big tragedy will mean that we need a whole bunch of them. When that happens, we’re ready.

I know that because yesterday I needed 12 prayer bears and four prayer shawls. And when I say “needed,” mean exactly that.

The story is too raw for details and it isn’t my story to share but I can say this much. When a child less than two years old is critically ill in the hospital it is time to get out a prayer bear. When such a child has 11 first cousins who are under the age of 11, eyes get big when I come in with a prayer bear. When I think of who needs comfort, of course all 12 children need comfort even the cousins who aren’t able to be with the family in the waiting room of the pediatric intensive care unit.

I can say that I know when a mother has run out of prayers and is deeply in need of a tangible reminder that she is not alone, not the only one praying, and that there is a circle of love much wider than the crew at the hospital, there is a real need of a prayer shawl.

I can say that I don’t find it hard to identify with the parents of that young mother. I know the ache in their hearts each time she cries. I know that there is no answer to the question, “Why?” I know that I can’t look them straight in the face without wrapping them in the love and prayers of our church as well. And the aunt of the little one in the hospital, even though she has a daughter to hug, is braver than I’ve ever had to be and while I honor her courage, she needs to know that she will never be left alone.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it feels like to have to decide between you father’s funeral in one town and being with your daughter as she attends a meeting with the hospital transplant coordinator. But I know that God was with the one who had to make that decision last night. He told me that he heard his father’s voice as clear as can be telling him that his place is with his daughter. It was his father’s voice, no doubt, but I’m convinced that his father is with God and that God needed to use his father’s voice to communicate a most important message. Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.

When we bless prayers shawls or prayer bears in our church, I sometimes say something silly like, “We live to bless.” Of course we don’t do the blessing. It is God who blesses. The fingers of the knitters and crocheters wrap prayers into the tension of the yarn and string as they make the simple gifts. They literally have faith to share and share their faith in each stitch. They know that faith and hope and love never diminish by giving them away. The more you give, the more you have.

The cabinet is a bit like that. It is a little empty at the moment. But I know that is temporary. The more prayer bears and prayer shawls we give away, the more we have. Isn’t it wonderful that God has blessed us with such generous knitters and crocheters? You never know when some big tragedy will mean that we need a whole bunch of them. When that happens, we’re ready.

I’m no good at knitting and I don’t know the first thing about crocheting. But I do spend a bit of almost every day praying in different parts of the church. Sometimes I pray in my office. Sometimes I pray in the sanctuary. Sometimes I pray in the nursery or the kitchen. Sometimes I pray in the youth room. They are all very sacred spaces. Now I’ve got a new place to pray. If you see me praying in front of the cabinet it isn’t that I’ve lost my senses. It is just that I know that there are some days when you might run short of prayers unless you work ahead and surround yourself with others who have prayers to spare.

I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.