Unanswered Prayers

Today I had to take Byron to OSU again to see his orthodontist.   As we rounded the corner for “our” parking garage, the parking attendant once again pulled out those infamous, nasty, orange cones that signal the garage is full and therefore closed.   It was a dreary, gray day with a cold wind blowing – not a great day for taking a long walk.    Byron was so optimistic and said, “Mom, drive around the block like we did before, and maybe it will be opened by then”.     We drove around the block, and even said a prayer that it would open.   Nope – still full.    So we drove around a few more times, with no avail.  Finally after asking a security guard where the next closest garage was, we drove 3 blocks down the street and on the top level, finally found a parking spot!   It was about as far from our building as I’d want to park.  😦

On our “long walk”, Byron and I had an opportunity to talk about when we ask God for things in prayer, sometimes He says “Yes”, sometimes He says “No”, and sometimes maybe “wait a while”.    There are times when God may reveal to us the reasoning behind His answers, and other times like today, we don’t know why He said no.  There was no stranded ‘neighbor’ for us to help, or other situation where we could be a witness for Him.

I’m not a big country fan, but this Garth Brooks song came to my mind today as Byron and I were talking about prayer….

 “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers”.

Today was just a small and insignificant example of an unanswered prayer, but there have been times when bigger prayers have not been answered how I prayed.  I don’t know why, and may never know, but this I’m confident of, God has a plan and purpose for my life.   He sees the big picture.   What He requires of me is trust and obedience…… aha, I knew there was a hymn in this somewhere!   🙂