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Imagine Adam & Eve, gifted a garden, arriving in spring and summer blossom and bloom.

Then came autumn.

It must have been concerning. In their first months they had not experienced such a season – seeming as though everything was in decline. A fall even.

All these millennia later we know the pattern of the seasons and autumn doesn’t cause us to fear. We even admire the colours and even knowing that soon these branches will be bare our hope remains since we know that before too long springtime will arrive.

Late yesterday afternoon I stopped at the Domain in Temuka to write this reflection, and what a spot to stop on a glorious autumn day.

I checked my email and found many from readers reporting experiences of answer to our prayers for those they love initialled below.

This week I have been pondering my expectations of God when I pray. How do I expect God to respond when I pray?

I know that as a child I think I saw God as a magician making the sun shine for the picnic, bringing rain to ease a drought, stopping a war and healing a sick grandparent.

Now I realise that God is not a magician.

Instead God is a God of miracles, and while I’m still pleased at magical changes, my real desire is for miracles.

What is the difference between magic and miracle?

Magic is when something seems to happen but it doesn’t really happen. The woman in the box doesn’t really get sawn in half even though that seems to happen.

Miracle is when an something might be hard to see, but it really happens.

And that’s the case with prayer.

While it may seem as though the situation I pray about is not resolved I became aware that my greatest desire is not that life goes according to my plans and prayers, but that I and those I love grow to know that even in the downs of life the seasonal rhythm of passing though suffering to death to resurrection is also happening in my life, with my family and friends, and in our world.

In fact God’s will matches my deepest desires, even deeper than my conscious needs and hopes.

And when I relax into my deepest desire I notice that God is at work and my prayer is being answered at a much deeper level than I could ever have asked or imagined.

Take these days – the Easter Octave,
as an opportunity to experience
the risen Jesus with you
in every hour.

Set five minutes
twice a day
each day of this Easter Octave.
Diary these appointments with Jesus
and make these encounters
your priority this Easter Week.

and we continue to pray
especially for all those
who initials are listed below.

Tap the image below to enlarge and send initials of those we pray for to john@fff.org.nz