Hidden Connections – Human and Divine
These days we’re used to being instantly connected with others through the intangible mystery of the internet, a modern phenomenon that has embedded itself irrevocably in our lifestyle. Internet interconnectedness serves as a useful metaphor for prayer - the mysterious, intangible connectivity between us and God.
The Bible offers a vivid, visual picture of our prayers reaching God in the Apostle John’s vision in Revelation,
Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.
Revelation 8: 3-4
It’s astonishing to imagine our faltering, sometimes half-hearted prayers being offered to God in golden bowls by angels.
Prayer is a strong theme in my timeslip medieval novel, ‘The Twelfth Cross’ (coming soon). I utilised a different image when Brother Clément, the main character in the medieval part of the story, pictures his prayers rising to God.
‘All Clément could do was watch and wait. With one eye on the guest hall door, he stood shivering in the lightening winter morning and contemplated the revelations of the past few hours. As the sun rose, its full impact dawned on him: the awesome power of the One who had given him the vision, the One who, in answer to his prayer, had … [spoiler alert]
A blackbird trilled his mellow song nearby. Clément turned as it took to the air and flew over the priory wall and out of sight. He imagined his prayers like a bird, rising higher and higher on wings of grace, until they passed beyond this world into that greater reality where God dwells and love flows unbounded between Creator and creature. Prayer - that was his task in all this mystery. Someone else might wield a crossbow but prayer too was a powerful weapon. Watch and pray; were they not the very words of our Saviour to his disciples? So he watched and he prayed.’
