On Prayer

Prayer is a miracle. During the first few months of my time as a missionary in Ecuador, my companion, Elder Rekoutis, and I were across the room from each other, kneeling at our beds, praying. When each of us had finished, Elder Rekoutis quipped, "which of us was God listening to?" The answer, of course, was both, which is the beginning of the miracle. I wondered then how many millions of people were praying at the same time Elder Rekoutis and I were. Yet, during that prayer, I literally felt as if God was focusing all His attention on me and my concerns.

Still, God cares just as much about His other children and their concerns. And modern revelation teaches the inhabitants of this Earth are not the only children of God in the universe: There are other worlds and other men and women. (See D&C 76:18-24; Moses 1:29-34). And science estimates there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on every beach on the Earth! When we look at ourselves within the context of the universe, we are specks living on a speck called Earth, which is a speck within our solar system, which is a speck in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is a speck within an ever-expanding universe.

Yet I have offered prayers when scarcely I have begun that I felt my Heavenly Father say, "I am here." And although Heavenly Father oversees the creation and governing of countless galaxies, He is completely devoted to us as individuals.

And what adds to the miracle of prayer is that God even cares about the minutia of our lives. For example, as my family and I traveled from Waco to Utah, we only had forty-five minutes to catch a connecting flight in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. But our flight from Waco to Dallas was delayed. We were certain the plane to Utah would take off without us. But my wife and I were both praying that we would make it in time. And we did. As I sat waiting to take off, I said a silent prayer of thanks and was filled with the love of God. At that moment, I realized what a trivial thing catching a flight is when it compares to the grand scheme of things. But I also realized that our Heavenly Father took great pleasure in answering and granting that "trivial" petition.

Because it mattered to my wife and me, it mattered to Him!

That is the miracle of prayer. Even though we are specks, one of many billions of billions---or more---children of God, our Heavenly Father knows us individually, loves us personally, hears our prayers, delights in blessing us, and treats us as if we were His only child.

Thank God for the miracle of prayer.