Inspiration

THIS APP IS FREE

By Connie Arnold

We have a new neighbor. One day we waved at him as he was starting to pull his truck out of his driveway, and he followed us home and introduced himself.

“My name is José,” he said as he stepped out of his truck, extending his hand. The conversation went downhill from there.

The next time he came to see us he brought his ten-year-old son who functioned as interpreter. This still wasn’t the most comfortable alternative. José had an app on his cellphone that translated what he wanted to say from Spanish into English. He could then text it.

My husband wasn’t satisfied with that either, so he went on the search for a better app. He found it. He spoke into his phone in English, and the sentence came out in Spanish. Things went much more smoothly then.

José is a blacksmith: shoeing horses has been his trade for ten years. He has three horses at his new place: one he is training for a client, one he is boarding for his brother, and one is his own. The barn on his new place needs the addition of horse stalls, so, he asked if he could rent our barn while he was finishing his building project. This year we have no animals in our pastures and aren’t using our barn.

To be honest, it is interesting to have his activities going on where we can watch. My husband declined any payment as rent, but José wanted to do some work for us. He noticed where a car had jumped a ditch beside the road in front of our house, and had torn down a corner fence post and some fencing. José immediately started on the job of repairing the damage. Communication is no longer a problem with the new app. However, speaking the same language face to face would seem to be the best way to avoid misunderstanding.

The perfect way to converse is like Adam and Eve did with God in the garden of Eden. They walked and talked as friends. Later we know that Cain and Abel interacted with God, bringing sacrifices. We read how that turned out: Abel brought his ‘first’ fruits, and Cain brought ‘whatever’.

Sin’s static muddied this perfect communion. We don’t know how long it was from that time until their brother, Seth, had a son whom he named Enosh. But we know at this time, people began to call on the Lord. (Genesis 4:26). We must assume that their petitions were carried from the smoke of their burnt offerings to the waiting Heavens. This app would have been cloudy at best and going one way.

Communication with God continued to be sought for, a continuing hunger for God’s Presence. While Jesus was among his disciples, they watched as He often went out alone to pray to His Father. The twelve disciples watched Jesus pray, and they were convicted. “Teach us to pray,” they said.

Perhaps Jesus had been waiting for his followers to ask. He was eager to teach his disciples a new way to approach God. Some disciples were learned in the Torah and knew of the prayers; others were not.

He gave them a new outline that guided them and still guides us.

We know how the prayer that Jesus taught them begins—“Our Father which art in Heaven …”. He introduced God as their Father. A concept considered blasphemy by the pharisees.  Jesus told them to ask for God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. (Can’t go wrong there!)

But then, Jesus left. He went back to the Father from the cross, cutting off communication. They floundered with no voice to lead them. The disciples recalled the promise of His return, but it now seemed impossible. Also, He had said He would not leave them comfortless, but who would come? Whom would He send to close the gap separating the created from their Creator? They floundered until they found their way to the Upper Room and waited.

Then One did come. The Holy Spirit came as the open channel to Heaven. He is our Spiritual App. He takes our stumbling prayers, our emotional confusion, and sends a clear, concise petition to the Father. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God,” (NIV Romans 8:26b-27). We pray in Jesus’s Name through the Holy Spirit to the Father. God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity.