HOW d’you like my new car? I asked Sam as we stepped out of his house last night. He stopped for a moment, surprise writ on his face, then said, “God heard my prayers!” I thought I’d heard wrong and we went out for dinner but as we returned to his place sitting in my car again, he looked all round and then murmured, “Thank you God!”
“Come again,” I said puzzled, “what are you thanking God for?” “For answering my prayer for you!” he said, “There isn’t a night I haven’t asked God to bless you and looks like He’s done just that!” I had tears in my eyes!
A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed, that they had no other recourse but to pray to God.
However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island. The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man’s parcel of land remained barren.
After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, there was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, there was nothing. Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing.
Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God’s blessings, since none of his prayers had been answered.
As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from heaven booming, “Why are you leaving your companion on the island?” “My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them,” the first man answered. “His prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything.”
“You are mistaken!” the voice rebuked him. “He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received anything.” “Tell me,” the first man asked the voice, “what did he pray for that I should owe him anything?” “He prayed that all your prayers be answered!”
For all we know, our blessings are not the fruits of our prayers alone, but those of another praying for us. I looked at my friend Sam, tears still in my eyes; there was much I had been blessed in the last few months, but my tears were droplets of shame I had never prayed for him; I was so busy doing so for myself..!
