About 40 days ago, our church handed out Peaceful Remembrance of September 11, 2001-Forty Days of Prayer for Children. It was a resource created by the United Methodist Church to help children in learning how to to use God's gift of prayer. They also asked for the children to write a prayer that would then be used in the creation of the worship service for 9/11. They asked for the prayers to be turned in by Sept. 4th. Mike and I were out of town for the weekend and Evan was staying with Mom, Liz and Cathy. I had asked Mom to have Evan write a prayer. I had no idea what he wrote.
As we were reading the Call to Worship, I thought to myself, wow, these kids are very insightful. Here is what we read:
It is good to have God in our lives!
God made everything and everyone for us!
We pray for everyone that died on 9/11 that they have gone to heaven and are living with you forever.
God, bless everyone who survived that terrible event.
Help all that have lost family or friends.
Help them know that you are with them.
We thank you Lord, for all the heroes who worked so hard to help the victims of that day.
Help us to be peacemakers in the world and not a people who want to make war.
We know Jesus loves us.
We want to show that love to others.
Later, my mom shared with me that Evan's prayer was included in the service in the Call to Worship. The last four lines were his prayer. I was stunned. Mom said all she told him was that she likes to start a prayer with giving thanks for something and then ask God for help. Tears flowed of course! It's times like this that, as a parent, take my breath away.
Here was my sweet boy on 9/11/01. He was our ray of light on that awful day.
