Carol McClain

Prayer Parable at Chuck E. Cheese

Carol McClain   @carol_mcclain    (Be the first to get the blog and my newsletter–sign up today).

I got a chance to play with my littlest granddaughter last week. She loves Chuck E. Cheese in the way I love coffee, chocolate and the beach. (Um, and perhaps her Grandpa Neil). To bless her, I did what any grandma (Didi, in my case) would do. I took her there.

It started out normally. I wondered if I’d have enough money on the Chuck E. Cheese game card to cover all her fun before our pizza arrived. Luciana raced from game to game.

Pizza came. We settled down.

Unfortunately, Chuck E. Cheese himself (a human dressed like a six-foot rat), made an appearance to bless the kids.

Not my Luciana. She HATES the big, dressed-up characters. Despises them. Is terrified. (i.e. does not care for them). She began to quake. She huddled into me. “I want to sit in the car.” “I’m not hungry.” “I want to leave.” “Now, please.”

Her appeals left me two choices. I could continue to bless her, according to my wishes, and make her stay, Or we could leave.

Knowing how much she loves this wonderland, I enticed her to tarry. The human-rat had finished his show and vanished. We needed a few more coupons for her to get a prize. Luciana acquiesced, but still her heart, her appeal, her desire was to leave. We played long enough to earn a prize, wrapped up the pizza, picked out stickers and went to the park.

Whoever has ears, let him hear.

 

This is the parable of prayer.

1. God always wants to bless us. I didn’t take Luciana to Chuck E. Cheese because I craved pizza. She loves the place. Invites her friends. Begs to go. However, this day it scared her.
2. Insistence yields results. Had my granddaughter simply said, “I’m done” and had left it at that, we would have played for hours more. Repeatedly, she begged to go to the park and skip the playland.
3. Passion underscores insistence. Had there not been terror in her voice, had she not truly wanted to go, I would have coaxed her to stay.
4. Sometimes God delays. On the human end, unsure of Luciana’s motivation, I did not grant her request immediately. Also, lunch arrived, and she needed to eat. We had a few tickets to earn a prize, but not quite enough to get one. I enticed her to play a couple more games so we could leave with stickers. She may not have known the reason for my delay, but it was for her benefit and to honor her.

We serve a mighty God who always hears us when we cry.