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Birthday Prayer
I remember a time when I was about nine or ten years old and we were in the mountains at my Grandpa’s house during my birthday. The ground, which is usually covered in snow in January, was barren. The grass was as brown as the bark on the trees, and all that was left of Grandma’s rose bushes were the thorns. All I wanted for my birthday that year was snow. I loved snow! Nothing brought me more joy at that time in life than eating a handful of pure snow straight from the heavens.
That night, the eve of my birthday, as I lay down to go to bed I didn’t think about the new Nintendo game I’d been wanting for so long, or about the baseball cards I might get. I was lost in dreams of snow covering the earth. As I knelt down to pray my humble, innocent prayer to God, I simply prayed for a little snow. A true, sincere desire of my adolescent heart, offered up with the faith of a boy who believed anything he was told. (Even believing his older brothers when they told him monsters lived in Mom and Dad’s bedroom at night.) I offered my whole heart, the same heart that trusted Mother when she told him that “God hears our prayers and answers them.” I look back on that day and wonder just how righteous of a desire that was to ask of God, but then I always remember this:
The next morning – my birthday – the first thing I did as my eyes popped open was run to the window and pull the curtains apart. And there it was! Trees standing out of three feet of snow like candles in a cake, the sky falling like white confetti; God wishing me a Happy Birthday! All I really wanted was a little snow for my birthday and He had given me enough to share with my family, friends, and even the neighborhood dogs. More snow than I knew what to do with lay there upon the ground that frozen January morning. I had blown out the candles as I closed my prayer the night before, and my wish had come true.
Now maybe it wasn’t the most righteous desire in the world, but it was granted. Heavenly Father knew that I needed to be taught a lesson, and He knew it could work. That day, as I ate all the snow I could possibly handle I probably didn’t thank my Father for the blessing like I should have, but He knew how much it would impress me. To this day, ten years later, I still remember that day and thank God for answering my simple prayer. I know that prayers offered in true faith, sincere and believing God can and will grant blessings unto us, according to His will, will be answered.
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