Close Encounters of the Prayer Kind

   I blogged previously about some of the weird answers to prayers I have had in the past (see Why I Stopped Giving God Advice), but there are also times God answered before I knew I needed to pray.  For instance, just after we moved into our current home I got the stomach flu.  When I sent my son to the garage to get me a popsicle, he noticed the freezer wasn't very cold.  We didn't know that the outlet we had plugged the freezer into was broken.  If not for my flu, we could have lost hundreds of dollars worth of groceries. There are probably many times God has intervened to protect me before I even knew there was a need, this is just one I found out about.
     Another instance happened today.  At our church we make tapes and CDs of the Sunday services.  My job is to copy the cassettes, mail them to the shut ins, and take requested copies to church.  When I stopped at the church today I could only find one of the two envelopes of tapes.  I searched the likely places at my house to no avail.  I resigned myself to having to make additional copies and was cleaning the bathroom when the phone rang.  The nearest phone was in the computer room and lying near the phone was the missing envelope.  I must have answered the phone in that room yesterday while I was holding the tape envelope.  I don't use that phone often (nor do I dust that room often) so the envelope could have laid there for weeks.  I hadn't even bothered to pray about it, I could easily copy more tapes, it's just that losing things I know I had, even if its just a pen, makes me think I am also losing my mind.  I just might need that someday.
     In nursing terms, I would say that we most often think of prayer as being p.r.n., use as needed.  Answered prayer is one of the ways God shows us that he loves us and praying for answers makes us aware of that, but some answers are prophylactic, to prevent the problem.  Those situations: the flat tire that kept you out of the traffic pile up, the doctor who happened to be around when cpr was needed, and the many times we never found out what could have happened, are God working incognito, knowing he will never get the praise he deserves.  Isn't that just like him?
     Today's episode made my relationship to God seem like the one I have with my husband.  We anticipate each others needs, answer questions before asked, please each other in bed, with the familiarity that comes from long years together.  Mankind has long imagined extraterrestrials reaching out to know, help or harm us, but a God who desires such intimacy that he is willing to pick up after me--that is inconceivable.