A Birthday Wish
This little boy wound up teaching his mother a wonderful lesson about what prayer can do.
By Karen Barnett, Albany, Oregon
Andrew, my four-year-old, knelt by his bed.
“Dear God, thank you for this day and please don’t let me have any nightmares,” he said. “And please let my friend Eden come to my birthday party.”
“Sweetie, Eden’s new house is hundreds of miles away,” I said, pulling the covers over Andrew and kissing his forehead. “That’s much too far to come to your party.”
“But, Mom,” Andrew said, looking at me as if I just didn’t understand how life worked, “I prayed she would come!”
I was the last person on earth to tell anyone about prayer. I kept my own prayers strictly on the safe side. Nothing big. Nothing extraordinary. Let the kids have a good day. Keep us safe in the car. Help the baby stop crying. I figured if I kept my expectations low, I wouldn’t be disappointed.
Andrew had no such rules. He couldn’t imagine turning five without his best friend. I had shown Andrew on a map just how far away Eden lived.
He handed me an invitation with her name on it. I slipped it into my purse. There was no point in mailing it.
“What kind of cake should I make for Saturday?” I asked, hoping to get him thinking about things that were actually possible.
“A purple butterfly,” said Andrew. “Eden loves butterflies—and purple is her favorite color.”
Thursday evening, the phone rang. It was Eden’s mother. “Eden and I are in town this weekend. We’d like to stop by. Are you busy on Saturday?”
I couldn’t wait to surprise Andrew. When Eden showed up on Saturday right on time for the party, I grabbed my camera to get a shot of Andrew’s face. But Andrew wasn’t surprised at all! He welcomed her just like he did his other friends. Then they both ran to play video games.
That’s when I realized the surprise wasn’t for my son, but for me. It was my faith that needed shoring up, my prayers that needed to grow.
“Wasn’t it amazing that Eden came all that way to be at your party?” I asked Andrew later.
Andrew looked at me and grinned. “Mom, I prayed!”
One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant. Before long it exploded into flames and an alarm went out to fire departments from miles around. After fighting the fire for over an hour, the chemical company president approached the fire chief and said, “All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved! I will give $50,000 to the engine company that brings them out safely!”
As soon as the chief heard this, he ordered the firemen to strengthen their attack on the blaze. After two more hours of attacking the fire, president of the company offered $100,000 to the engine company that could bring out the company’s secret files. From the distance a long siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was a local volunteer fire company composed entirely of men over 65. To everyone’s amazement the little fire engine raced through the chemical plant gates and drove straight into the middle of the inferno. In the distance the other firemen watched as the old timers hopped off of their rig and began to fight the fire with an effort that they had never seen before.
After an hour of intense fighting the volunteer company had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas. Joyous the chemical company president announced that he would double the reward to $200,000 and walked over to personally thank each of the volunteers. After thanking each of the old men individually the president asked the group what they intended to do with the reward money. The fire truck driver looked him right in the eye and said, “The first thing we’re going to do is fix the stupid brakes on that truck!”
