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Prayer Changes Things!!

I'm not a Religious Writer. I don't speak before Congregations. 
I'm just a Country Boy who pays attention to what's going on around him.

These words of inspiration which I am writing are the absolute truth !
Nothing is added or deleted or altered in any way. If I had not been a witness to these and other similar events, I might doubt them myself. And even so, I might doubt my memory; except that I have another human witness.

Someone who doubts the Creator or His past and present abilities may be skeptical of these words I write. Even Believers may question my words if they lack similar experiences.

As I sit here at my "Board of Keys", there is a Carolina Wren singing into my outdoor microphone, (which brings Nature's Chorus indoors at those times when I am imprisoned by the weather, vacuum cleaner, kitchen dishes, or laundry), as though voicing approval of these words I write.

Let me begin several years ago when I was searching through my collection of Yard Sale and Flea Market treasures, for a hard-to-find plumbing fitting to finish my latest invention. My search was in vain, so I planned a Flea Market visit for the following Saturday. I invited my Lady Friend and explained in detail what I was looking for, so she could help with the search. 

I bypassed all the usual toys, clothing and dishes and went directly to the boxes behind pickup trucks, and the tables sheltered by blue and silver tarps which, from past experience I knew to be filled with brass plumbing treasures.

In the focus of my search, I nearly forgot about my Friend when I heard her ask, "Is this what you're looking for ?". She held in her hand the very treasure that brought us 50 miles to this popular Flea Market !

"Where did you find that", I asked. "Lying right there, under the table on the ground", she replied. I looked at her skeptically as I asked the vendor his price. "I never saw it before", he said; "It's not mine". 

I still have trouble believing that this actually happened, and you are welcome to join me if you like. But don't think you're listening to the Teller of Tall Tales or a Victim of Fantastic Imagination.

Now back to the Carolina Wren (still serenading me in the microphone):
This Spring I felt a yearning for the song of a Jenny Wren. For the past three summers they had not used the house I built. Many other birds had already raised young which were surveying their new world from nearby tree branches.

During my wanderings and labors of the day, this nagged at me until the thought of "Officially asking" entered my mind. With hat in hand, I looked toward the Heavens and made a solemn plea for the return of this tiny songster who, for years had injected his cheerful melody into my country life.

Within a week I heard and saw a Jenny Wren sing from atop their house. Coincidence? Maybe.  Maybe Not!  Read on:

Now it's getting late in the nesting season, and I realize that I have not seen or heard the noisy Carolina Wrens which have nested in my most unlikely spots for years. Back to the drawing board; "My Lord Almighty God, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and all living things . . ." 

The Very Next Morning, as the Sun rose in the Eastern Sky and the Robins, Bluebirds, Baltimore Orioles, Cardinals, Titmouse and Mocking Bird joined in making my day; there among them was the loud and unmistakable melody of the Carolina Wren ! And before sunset, I heard two of them at different locations.

I believe He answers Prayers. I believe that "Prayer Changes Things".
Who knows that this very Carolina Wren was not the Creator himself ?
Could He not appear in any form He chose?
Do you not believe?

"Thinking themselves to be wise, they became as fools."
Am I the fool here?
Are You?

It is very comforting to know that;
"Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, . . . ".

Where will you be if He turns "Off" the Earth's Gravity?
Or Sunshine,
Or Oxygen,
Or Rain,
Or Singing Birds!
Think about it.

Maybe you profess to being a non-Believer.
Maybe you never had the need to ask for His help.
Maybe your life has always been great and you are ready for death,
which you may think is a nothingness; a turning "Off" all of your senses.

But what if by just the slimmest chance you are wrong?
Were you ever wrong before? Could you possibly be wrong again?

Could there possibly be a Power Who made a Baby's smile?
Who made Teeth and Fingernails grow out of Flesh,
Who made a Semi-circular Canal inside you Head to hold you upright,
Who made Fish Gills which extract Oxygen from Water,
Who made the Oxygen and the Water in the first place ?

Well maybe there just possibly could be such a Power.
Maybe there really is a hellish Eternal Fire stoked by non-Believers.
Can you take the chance of being wrong?

Would it harm you in any way to say a prayer before your demise?
What if it were answered? Could you say another?
If your life improved noticably, might you become a Believer?
Are you afraid of becoming a Believer because of what people might say?

Eternity is a Mighty long time,
and those "people" may not be with you !
- Think about it !

"Evolution", you say? 
You believe that this all happened by accident?
That Birds used to have Scales and swim under water?
That your ancestors were Monkeys?

Would you even entertain the thought that 
maybe Monkey's ancestor was Man?

If you found a Plastic Brick on a mountain top that had the word "Dummy" plainly carved into its face, could you believe that it evolved over billions of years by rocks and wind-blown sand accidently forming it?

Which of these human elements could possibly have evolved first; 
Blood, Vessels, Heart, Intestines, or Lungs ?

It seems reasonable to assume that evolution follows a pattern of need, like "Necessity is the Mother of Invention". So when the automobile was invented, it followed an evolutionary path of getting doors and brakes and rubber tires and lights and a windshield and wipers and squirters and TV.

When the hand crank was replaced by an electric starter, it needed a battery to power the starter, and then a generator to keep the battery charged, and then an amp meter to show if the generator was working. Soon dirt roads evolved, followed by red lights and Cops with Radar and Helicopters !

Blood is necessary for life. It carries the essential Oxygen and Nutrients to every cell in your body. So it must have been present on day one. You'll know it's there if you cut yourself; Blood will run out. And this was a Giant problem until Platelets accidently appeared at a much later millennium. 

Incomplete Homo Sapiens(people) were lying in their Gardens, wood lots and work shops, as their life's Blood drained from every new and old thorn and splinter puncture. And once a month all the women died. All these deaths because there were no Platelets in their Blood to clot and stop Blood loss.

But Blood needs the Heart and Vessels to pump it to each cell where it deposits its groceries from the Intestines and picks up a load of cell excrement for the return trip. So maybe the Heart and Vessels accidently appeared first. But they need Blood for their very existence!

So here we are in our cave watching "The Flintstones", "Green Acres", and "Lucy",  with all these Quarts of evolved Blood and no Heart or Veins to deliver it to our cells. Just waiting around for billions of years for our Pump and Pipes to accidently get here by Federal Express.

Now if we can exist in our cave for all that time, what is the impetus or driving force that prompts Eva Lution to do a Google search for "Making Pumps and Pipes"? And where are the cave remains of all those Incomplete Ancestors who died of old age while waiting around for FedEx and the Great Package to arrive from Eva. 

And while all this is going on there are no children born because that's way down the road after we get this Blood/Heart/Vessels/Lungs thing working. We can't have childbirth without Blood. And that Umbilical Cord. We still have to work on that thing. And all those 25 feet of Intestines to take the nutrients from the food and put it into the Blood to deliver to the Cells. Whewie!!

And we Must put a valve on those Intestines! Digested food is so Yukky! We can't have it just running out when it gets to the end of the Intestines.Those Helicopter Cops would have a field day if we dropped that stuff all over their Blessed Interstate Turnpike when we went for a Sunday drive. 

Let's put a muscle at the end of the Intestines and locate it under the right arm pit where no one will see it. But then the digested food might run down your Rib Cage. Yikes ! Maybe it's better to locate it between the Toes of the right foot? Let's take a vote. No, we'll ask all-knowing Eva! 

Or... maybe everything was completed in the same instant. . . 
to work in perfect unison and harmony with each other. Maybe Eva in her perfect wisdom and foresight, could see all the modern Cardio Doctors out of work, and all the Colleges that teach their profession turning off the electric lights. And the resulting decline in the tax base which would cause Public Schools to drop a few Football and Cheerleader Uniforms - ooops!
Please forgive me; I may have digressed.

Maybe Eva is a lot more real than I gave her credit for. Maybe she saw the need for Hemoglobin and Thrombocytes and Bone Marrow and Red and White "Corpsuckles" (as Archie would say). Maybe she really did Create you and me
. . . on the "Sixth Day". And maybe The Book of Genesis accidently got "her" name wrong? The Book of Telephones does it, too!
 
 

Nevin Hawlman
 
 

Poem: "The apple Maker"