One of the loveliest gifts that I received this Christmas was not intended as a Christmas gift. In mid-December we had the opportunity for a brief masked socially-distanced encounter with my older brother and his wife who live in St. Catharines, Ontario.
While visiting together, David gave
me a notebook my parents shared over a period of years when they were young. It
included interesting handwritten tidbits from their developing teaching and
pastoring careers. Near the back of the book, I found prayers written out in my
mother’s script.
I suspect these prayers were
prepared for public events where Mom had been asked to offer prayer on behalf of
those gathered.
Reading it, I realized how much I
missed my parents’ daily prayers for family. For more than 65 years I was
lifted up in prayer every day. It began before I was born and continued until
they both left this earth. What did it mean – these prayers of my parents for
me?
It was not an insurance policy.
While I am sure I was protected from many disasters, I still experienced the
accidents and illnesses that are a part of human life in this world, yet I thrived
and developed.
Many opportunities and blessings
also came my way, not because I was special nor did anything to merit them. They
were gifts of grace and some I am sure coincided with the prayers of my parents
as they presented my needs to God.
My parents’ faith was anchored in
the language of the Bible they read and applied to their lives. That Bible was
written in the 1611 English of the King James Version of the Bible. It was not
surprizing that the language of their prayers was also King James English. As a
child, I came to understand that to be the language of their faith. However,
for me, this was not the case.
Like contemporary English for an
immigrant who comes to this country, I understood and could communicate in King
James English but when I really wanted to be understood, I used modern English.
Thus, from a fairly young age, I began to speak to God myself in my English.
As part of my faith journey, I
accepted the discipline of reading the Scriptures every day, in the faith
language of my ancestors – King James English. Although I understood it, the
world of which it spoke seemed distant and remote from my every day life.
Then when we were in our
mid-twenties, the prayers of my parents for my developing faith were answered
in a unique way by a gift to us from my husband, Glen’s parents. They gave us a
copy of the newly available Living Bible. This was a version of the Bible that Ken
Taylor had initially carefully paraphrased from King James English into
contemporary English for his own family.
I began to read it immediately and the Bible really did come alive for me. As I read the stories of the life of Jesus, I could hear Him speaking in words that were meaningful for me. It was the words that were part of my everyday life. They enabled me to see more clearly how what He said and did could make a difference in my day-to-day life.
This was a helpful lesson for me
as I matured and joined my parents in bringing to the Lord my concern for the
faith development of my own children. Their faith journey has taken them into
the 21st century. They need to find the tools appropriate to their
generation, like the YouVersion Bible on their devices and Pray-As-You-Go. Their expression of faith is not the same as
mine or my parents but is just as genuine and continues to grow as they learn
to apply it to their lives in the world in which they live.
As we travel into 2021, may we
each have eyes to see resources unique to our needs that the Lord continues to provide
so we can comprehend the height and depth and width of God’s unfailing love for
us – drawing us closer to Him.
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| Word Guild Award 2011 |
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| Word Guild Award 2009 |
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| Word Guild Award 2018 |
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