My prayer life began with an Archie comic book back in 1968 when I was 12 years old. Granted, 1968 was a tumultuous year in America!There were a lot of events going on in the world in 1968 that were certainly more monumental than a 12 year black girl from Indianapolis Ind. starting to pray.
The very unpopular Vietnam War was dividing the soul the country. In January, bewildered President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for president again; in April Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis; in June Senator Robert F. Kennedy was murdered in Los Angeles; in November after 267 years of being an all male university, Yale University decided it would admit female students(seriously). Political, racial, gender issues were weighty matters (they still are 55 years later) and the beginning of my prayer life was one of the most consequential event in my life.
I have always loved to read. In fact, while my siblings were outside in the alley behind our house, jumping old tires, or drawing hopscotch boxes on the sidewalk out front, or learning to ride a borrowed bikes, I was in the living room, curled up in a chair reading Little Women, Anne of Green Gables or one of my all time favorites, the Archie comic books. I liked Betty and Veronica, but Betty was my muse. She could be counted on to always take care of things when the other characters messed up.
In 1968 it was pretty safe to allow your children to walk to the corner drug store to purchase little things. So off I went the two blocks to the corner store to purchase something for my mother. The preacher at our Baptist Church had just recently told the congregation that whatever you needed God would supply it for you and I needed some fresh, unread Archie comic books!
As I walked to the store I started talking to God about money to buy comic books. I had no job and no way to get the fifteen cent needed to purchase one comic book. The closer I got to the corner store the more urgent my pray request became. "God I would really like to buy me some new comic books and Rev. Starks said that you will give me whatever I need so God I am asking. Amen. Untainted, unfiltered, simple request from a child who had a need.
As was my walking habit, I kicked rocks all the way from my house the the drug store; some rocks made all the way and others were kicked into the oncoming traffic, oh well. As I got steps away from the drug store and looking down to spot my rock , I saw what looked like dried up green grass. (calm down this is my story!) You guessed it, lying in the grass was a balled up dollar bill! For my 12 year old self, a whole one dollar bill was like winning the mega lottery! Naturally I looked around to see if anyone was watching and I put my foot on that crumpled up dollar bill, hurriedly picked it up and deposited it into my blue pants pocket!
I was beyond joyful, overwhelmed, giddy with excitement! God gave me a whole dollar and I only needed fifteen cents! I could now buy not one but six Archie comic books. ( it never crossed my mind to share my dollar with my siblings, nope, they needed to ask God for their own money)
I skipped straight into the store, all the way in the back to the magazine section, looked at rolls and rolls of new Archie comic books, pondered my choices then turned around, went back to the front of the store and bought a boatload of candy or all one whole dollar could buy.
To this very day, I believe that God gave me that dollar bill, knowing that I would not buy comic books but candy. And from that day until now, I have prayed. Most times God did not answer my prayers that way I expected (that's a story for another blog) or wanted yet God has always answered and given me what I needed the most, including comics and candy.
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