The Child who brought an Open Umbrella
for Prayer
The rains failed again that year. It was the third year
in succession when there was no rain. The crops had disappeared and the land
was a brown swath of dusty rubble. Trees had lost their leaves years ago and
stood out like silhouettes of cactus on the dusty horizon. There was a stream
that skirted the village in years bygone. Now the riverbed was dry. Where once
flowed clean, fresh water from the nearby mountains, there was now a bed of
clay, cracked in a checkerboard pattern with gaps as wide as a foot. No
one knew what had happened to the birds except for the vultures that circled
the town, looking for a carcass or two of an animal that was left dying.
There was famine in the land. People walked around like
sticks, sans flesh, surviving on whatever ration was brought to them by trucks,
distributed by charities, located in far-away lands.
Desperate for help, the people of the village held a
meeting under a big banyan tree that was as old as the village. “Let us pray”,
said an elderly man. “Only God can help us now’…
…The faithful decided to hold their prayer in the open,
late that night, under the open sky, away from the town. It was a full moon
night and the moon shone with its alluring brightness against a background of
shimmering stars. The men gathered in a field by the river. The mullah was
there with his white turban and so were the kazi and the muezzin. And there
were the men who at one time were considered rich by virtue of the cattle,
sheep, orchards and cultivated land they owned.
As the men formed neat rows for prayer, a child came
running from the town, holding high an open umbrella over his head. Huffing for
breath, he stood in the back row, umbrella still unfurled. The men could not
but help turn around and wonder what was going on. Some were curious;
others were annoyed because the umbrella created space between their shoulders
where there should be none.
At last the mullah admonished the child. “Why did you
bring the umbrella, O foolish child!” said the mullah to the child. “Don’t you
see there is no rain and we have come here to pray for rain? Only a
foolish one would stand on a clear night like this with his umbrella open”
“Yes”, said the child. “I came to pray too. I am certain
my prayer will be answered and it will rain. I have complete faith in God. That
is why I brought my umbrella.”
The mullah was dumb founded. The men had a sense of
shame. Each one looked to his right and to his left and then he looked inside
his own soul for that certainty of faith that was absent.
Who was the teacher here and who was the pupil? If
you pray for rain, you must have certainty in your heart that it will rain.
“Verily! Through the passage of time Humankind is at loss
Except such as those Who have certainty of faith…”. (The
Qur’an)
Do we have complete and
total faith when we kneel to pray sisters? I know that I fall short in the area
of prayer; I often find myself running through life and not stopping daily to
pray. More times than I would like to admit I find myself with my head on my
pillow rushing through a prayer so that I can go to sleep.
The reality is that our
Heavenly Father wants us to pray; it is not a commandment but it is one of
those things that he asks us to do as a way of showing our faith in our Father
and our Savior.
Too many times, we treat Heavenly
Father like an umbrella--we only use or call on Him when it's raining. Many of
us, myself included, try to get along in life by only using Heavenly Father
when we are in trouble, when there is a great need for something or when we
just want to ask a quick, little prayer with no real attitude of faith or repentance.
Sisters Heavenly Father cannot answer our prayers if we don't mean them.
I've thought, in the past, that I could
sin the same sin over and over and just keep asking repentance every time, but
in my mind, I haven't really repented. True repentance brings forth physical
evidence. Just like true meaningful and sincere prayer can bring about physical
evidence and all we have to do is open our umbrella of prayer.
President Spencer W. Kimbell said, “If the umbrella is not opened
up, it is little more than a cane and can give little protection from the
storms of nature. Likewise, God-given plans are of little value unless they are
used.
The umbrella spread out makes the silken material taut. When the
rain falls, it runs off; when the snow falls, it slides off; when the hail
comes, it bounces off; when the wind blows, it is diverted around the umbrella.
And in like manner, this spiritual umbrella wards off the foes of ignorance,
superstition, skepticism, apostasy, immorality, and other forms of godlessness.
It is my prayer that we shall all spread our spiritual umbrellas
for protection of our families.
Sisters an umbrella will not protect us from the storm unless we
open it and stand under it. Similarly, prayer cannot increase our faith in
Jesus Christ until we do it. Prayer is our umbrella in the storms of life.
Just as our spiritual umbrella
can ward off the foes of ignorance,
superstition, skepticism, apostasy, immorality, and other forms of godlessness
it can also bring us encouragement, strength, knowledge, peace, rest from our
burdens and joy to our souls.
When I thought about the quote I found, If prayer is like asking
for rain, then faith is carrying an umbrella I was reminded that our only means
of communication with the parent who loves us dearly is through prayer and just
as surely there will be rain again there is a surety that our prayers will be
answered.
The Lord tells us in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Do you think
sisters that perhaps He was speaking of our umbrella of prayer? Was He telling
us that if we will come to Him in prayer asking for our needs to be met He will
meet them? Was He telling us that if we will come to Him in prayer seeking to
find an answer, it will be given to us? Was He telling us that if we will come
to Him in prayer, knock on the door of spiritual growth and He will enlighten
our mind to it?
How lucky we are to have a Heavenly parent who wants to hear from
us not once in a while, not once a month or week or even once a day; but who
wants to hear from us at least three times a day?
As soon as we learn the
true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and
we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on
our part. Many of the so-called
difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is
the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought
into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the
will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is
already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them.
Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them.
Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of
all blessings.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be like Samuel who was recognized by his
nation to be characteristically a man of prayer? Sister’s let us have great
faith like this little boy who was foolish enough to bring an umbrella for
prayer. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
