~~as retold by
Alan Cohen in Lifestyles of the Rich In Spirit
For a long time the young angel was gone on his quest, and the overseeing angels wondered what had become of him.
When he finally returned he had with him a small boy.
"What took you so long?" his superiors inquired.
" I searched the earth," the aspiring angel told them. " I went to the synagogues and the churches, to the mosques and temples. There I found learned and revered men exhorting lengthy scriptures and rites - my mind boggled at the amount of knowledge their minds held. Yet when I looked into their hearts I saw their thoughts were wandering and they did not truly understand the words they were speaking."
"I found many people in all manner of houses of worship, dutifully reciting the delicate poetry of the psalms. But when I surveyed their souls, I found fear and hypocricy darkening their love."
"I journeyed, too, to people kneeling at their bedside, and even in privacy I did not find complete sincerity in their prayer."
The elder angels listened attentively. "Why, then, did you not return and report this to us?" they asked him.
"So I was about to. I began to believe that there was no one on earth whose prayers had the power to reach Heaven. Then, as I flew homeward over a busy city, my heaart was summoned by the sound of a child sobbing. As I drew close to find the cause of his tears, I heard him reciting the alphabet. Letter by letter he sobbed: 'A...B...C...' Then I heard him whispering these words:"
"Dear God, I do not know how to read, and neither have I learned how to pray; the prayer book would do me no good. But I love you so much! And I want to thank you for all the wonderful blessings you are to me. So, if it is alright with you, I will simply recite the letters of the alphabet with love, and trust that you, my dear Friend, will put them together into the words that are pleasing to you."
This, agreed all the angels, was the most powerful prayer of all.
The painting, "Child's Prayer" is copyrighted by Danny Hahlbohm. All rights reserved by the artist.
My sincerest thanks to Mr. Hahlbohm for allowing me to use his painting here.
Please do not copy this image without first obtaining permission from the artist.
The following banner will take you to his website.
midi courtesy of Dolphins Dream