This elderly gentleman decides to take a walk on a beautiful fall day. As wanders through the fields he sees great big orange pumpkins growing on these skinny little vines. He then notices all these tiny acorns growing on huge, sturdy trees. He suggests to God that he might have made a mistake. He begins to feel tired so he lays down and falls asleep under one of those large oak trees. Suddenly he comes awake as one of those acorns falls and hits him in the nose. Then he looks up and chuckles and says: God I guess you knew what you were doing after all!
I thought of this story when I read through the gospel reading today. James and John are making a request from their own limited experience and their own personal perspective. They want Jesus to guarantee them a place in the kingdom of heaven, sitting alongside Him. They somehow think that this will make them more important than the other apostles and they will be special forever in the eyes of God.
Jesus responds by telling them that they really don’t know what they are asking. They do not have God’s perspective and it is not their decision nor Jesus’ decision to make. HE reminds them that they have to trust God and what HE has in store for them.
So often in our own prayers we like to tell God what to do. WE make very specific requests. I don’t think God minds that. But what we have to remember is that God has a different perspective than we do and HE answers our prayers for our good, not always for what we want or think we need. What is most important about prayer is that it helps us to develop and keep alive our relationship with God. It is necessary to be very real in our prayers; to come before God as we are and with whatever desires are in our hearts. God listens and God loves us and responds by giving us what we need the most. And maybe we too can come away saying “God I guess you knew what you were doing all along”!