Somewhere Out There

Somewhere out there tonight is a little girl for whom I am praying.  I have never met her, but she has been on my heart for days.  Although I have never laid eyes on this little girl, my life has intersected with hers, and I am compelled to pray.  Today was a potentially life-altering day for her, although I do not yet know the outcome, and, in fact, may not find that out for days or weeks.  It doesn't matter.  I am burdened to pray, so I pray for an unknown child, facing overwhelming obstacles, and I will continue to pray for as long as God lays her on my heart.

Who knows, but that my prayers might make a difference.  Who knows, but that my prayers were needed to fill up that bowl of prayers that will be poured out at the right time in answer to the cries of the people of God.  It doesn't matter that I don't know her, does it?

And when I think about how exactly our lives intersected, it astonishes me.  When I think about why I feel so compelled to pray, it astonishes me.  It is through circumstances that simply could not be humanly orchestrated, some of which were just plain painful.  Circumstances that go back months and jump ahead to just a week ago.  And part of me thinks, God, was this all somehow part of your plan?  Did you allow this to happen so that I could meet this person who knows that little girl?  Did you arrange for that to happen all those months ago because you knew that on March 19, this little girl would need my prayer as she faced a life-and-death struggle?  Did you teach me that lesson so that I would help fight for this little girl's life with my prayers, knowing full well that you are a God who heals in miraculous ways?

It makes me wonder just how intricately woven together our lives actually are.  Just when I get to thinking I'm pretty independent, I catch a glimpse of something that is so infinitely delicate and so perfectly balanced that I am astonished, and my illusions of independence are shattered.  I wonder how many random happenings in my life are not random at all, but are perfectly orchestrated to intersect me with people I need to meet.  That ambulance that went by me with the sirens blaring as I sat in total frustration while waiting for the red light, and despite my frustration, I prayed for whoever was in that ambulance -- maybe that prayer was the one God used to keep a faltering heart beating.  The person who said she prayed for me last week -- I wonder what part of my life was held together through her prayers.  Maybe none.  Maybe something that I will never know.  It could be.  Maybe. Maybe not.  It could all be my wild imagination.  But I'm not taking chances. 

Because, somehow, I think it's not my imagination at all.
Somehow, I think God really cares that much.
Somehow, I think he's really that much in control.

Somewhere out there is a little girl for whom I am praying, because I must.
Because somewhere out there is a world that is so much bigger and more complicated than I can comprehend,
And a God who holds it all.

So I am praying.
And you can pray too.