"Prayer for this Child..."

"...I do not know how I am to pray for this child
as a mother I don't want my baby denied
but in the waiting in the waiting
I learned to hold onto the heart of God..."

I discovered this song, "Prayer for this Child," by Sara Groves, just when my heart was ready for a reminder that He holds us all...babies, toddlers, children, teens, adults...all of us held in the wideness of His heart, the vastness of His omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient care. 

Two days ago we sent almost one hundred teens out on their four-day outcamp trips.  Whitewater rafters headed south for a put-in along the Arkansas River.  They would navigate the rushing rapids of the Arkansas between here and Salida, and each night camp under the stars along its banks.  

Horsemanship campers headed east and west for the high country on wise, gentle steeds.  They would traverse ravines and carefully walk their horses along  mountain trails that lead higher and higher.

Mountaineering programs will hike, camp and peak 14,000 foot mountains...one program peaking two mountains in the course of three days...and mountain bikers will cover over one hundred miles of trail over canyons, along ridges, and through ancient aspen groves.  The photography group will look through their lens at flora and fauna so extraordinary I wonder if they will even want to come back after experiencing such serene beauty and divine grandeur.

But these trips will also be full of opportunities for each rafter, mountaineer, rider, photographer, and biker to push through old personal boundaries.  Almost every camper and counselor will face a wall where an old, outgrown sense of self will say "thus far and no farther," but which a new born (and borne) sene of self will greet with "bring it on" courage and eagerness.

My grandma used to say, "You never want the Comforter as long as you are comfortable!"  These kids will not be comfortable.  They will definitely find themselves well outside of their former humanly circumscribed comfort zones.  And they will want the Comforter!!!  So many years of being on tiptoe with expectation in supporting these spiritual adventures has taught me that this longing for the Comforter...is a given.

"...Every instinct in me wants to shield him from pain
take the arrows of misery heartache and blame
but in the sorrow in the sorrow
I learned to hold onto the heart of God..."

I remember one summer some years ago, when my daughter was in the Whitewater Rafting program for the second -- or was it the third -- year.   They had gone out on their three-day trips and I was joyously engaged in my work...praying for the safety of each camper, and the peace and joy of each program. 

It was a beautiful three days.  Sunny and hot with a cool breeze off the still snow-cevered mountains during the day, and cool, clear, star-lit nights.  My prayers had started and ended with God's All-in-allness, and although there were a few calls from the mountains or river for specific support, it was a very peace-filled and inspiring three days.

I was grateful to hear their whoops and hollers of joy upon returning to camp for hot showers and bunks that, although not tempurpedic-mold-to-your-body comfortable, were still softer than a sleeping bag and foam mat under the stars in a scree field.  I was eager to learn about the spiritual healings they had experienced. I couldn't wait for them to share insights gained and self-discoveries made while on their three-day trips. I was eager for the camp testimony meeting later that evening. 

"...I only have two eyes -  but You are The all seeing
I only have two hands - but You are The everywhere
I do not know enough - but You are The all knowing
I give my babies up into your care..."

As I sat on my porch silently giving thanks for their safe return...smiling at campers walking by covered in happy grime and carrying backpacks filled with dirty clothes...I watched for my own river-scented daughter and her best friend to come up from the raft barn sun-kissed and silly with brand new best-friend memories already starting to gel in their hearts.

But once I caught a glimpse of Hannah's face, I knew something had happened that I might not hear about right away.  And I didn't.  However in that moment it was alright. I somehow knew that there had been a moment of divine intervention, and I rested my need "to know the details" on that alone.

"...I long to know how I am to pray for this child
I want to guard him from everything wicked and wild
but in the trial in the trial
I learned to hold on..."

Weeks later, soon after we returned home, Hannah shared her story with no drama...very typically Hannah!

They had been riding blissfully down the river.  Each raft filled with a counselor and his/her boat family.  It was a very peaceful stretch of river, and everyone was relaxed under the clear, cloudlessly blue  Colorado sky...waiting, with oars at the ready, for the next stretch of rapids.   Hannah was sitting high on the side of the raft when they hit an invisible "hole" and she was popped out of the raft  and into the arms of the river.  This was not disturbing to her at all.  "Swimming" is fun for a rafter.  But this time, something was different.  She was pulled under and one of the straps from her Teva sandals got snagged on a hidden boulder and she couldn't get loose.

On the surface, still in the raft, a fellow rafter felt something impel him to follow Hannah into the river.  Then it told him to dive beneath the surface and locate Hannah.  Only then was it revealed that she was in trouble and needed help in extricating her sandal's webbing from the sharp point on the boulder that was holding her under the surface where she would soon have been unable to breathe.

Within moments both rafters bobbed to the surface, climbed into the raft, and their trip continued on down the river to their next camping site.

Hannah told me she was "fine" right away.

That's the story....no interpretation.  Hannah did not give a testimony during the church service that night at camp.  It makes me wonder how many beautiful stories of divine intervention, guidance, and healing - expereinced on three-day trips - are never shared publicly each summer.  

As her mom, I could never have known exactly what needed to be specifically prayed about with regard to this experience....but I could always know...with all my being...that God was with each camper and counselor.  I could affirm that  God never ceases to live "on purpose" as unconditional, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient (all-knowing), impartial and universal Love.  I could rest my mother's heart on this fact as divine law...always in operation, always reliable, always wise and at the ready.

"...And in the trial, in your trials
You'll learn to hold on to the heart of God..."

As a mother I have learned that inner peace in only found in "holding on to the heart of God" and trusting His love for my children...and all children.   In these moments of trial we learn so much about the constancy of His love for each of us.

with loving trust in His omniscience...always,
Kate
Kate Robertson, CS

[photo credit:  Ashley Bay 2009 - Adventure Unlimited Ranches]