Prayers, Praises, and Pilgrimages

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you know that I have been focusing on various devotionals throughout the year 2022. This month I will feature small snippets from Our Daily Bread for Kids by Crystal Bowman and Teri McKinley, For Every Little Thing by June Cotner and Nancy Tupper Ling, and 21 Prayers of Gratitude by Shelley Hitz. However, I will be veering off the beaten path a bit as I share highlights from a recent adventure.

When that fall with its colors at their peak
And leaves of every vine bathed in crimson,
Thirty-seven souls an adventure did seek,
Setting their sights on a trek to New England.

Last week I returned home from a “fall foliage” tour of New England where we viewed many of the sites on our pilgrimage via bus, train, boat, and ferry.

Most people who know me would be surprised that I agreed to such an adventure because I am often prone to motion sickness. Hence, I set out on this journey with prayers in my pockets.

As our journey began, I prayed fervently for safety and the lessening of my anxieties. Focusing on Him instead of the sea before me, I felt God’s presence and knew He was my constant traveling companion.

In Our Daily Bread for Kids (©2014 by Our Daily Bread Publishing), the devotion for November 30 reminds us that God is always our rock of safety.

“Imagine a sailor alone at night on a stormy sea. As the wind howls and the waves crash against his boat, he is scared. The waves grow larger until they splash over the side of his boat. The boat starts to lean into the waves. Suddenly a big wave slams into the boat and tips it over!

The sailor is knocked deep into the water and swims with all his strength to get back to the surface. When he comes up, he gasps for air. He looks around for something to hold onto as waves crash over his head. Then he sees a huge rock poking out of the water. He knows if he can get on top of that rock, he will be safe above the storm.

The story of this sailor is like a psalm King David wrote. During a hard time, David cried out to God. Like a sailor alone in the middle of the sea, David felt alone. His heart was getting weaker. He said to God, ‘Lead me to the safety of a rock that is high above me.’ David saw God like a rock that is above the dangerous sea water. He knew he would be safe in God’s presence. God was high above the struggle David faced.”

God was my rock of safety on this bus tour, and I know He is my rock in this journey called life.

When I was able to stop wrestling with my fears and start nestling into the journey, my prayers turned to praises. As a lover of literature, I saw constant connections to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Sharyn McCrumb’s St. Dale, Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and many of King David’s psalms.

Thirty-seven travelers, two tour guides, and a delightful driver whom I nicknamed Sir Galahad set out from middle Tennessee to head northeast to experience the beauty of the fall foliage. I had agreed to room with a friend whom I had seen twice in the last forty years. She had recently lost her husband and wanted a roommate to help share the expense of the trip.

Not expecting to know anyone else, I was surprised to reunite with two friends from high school and their spouses, four fun-loving in-laws whose children had brought them together.

Our group also included two sophisticated sisters in their eighties, a devoted daughter pinch-hitting for her mother who had to cancel because of Covid, an adventurous couple who lived nearby and knew people I knew, and a lady who loved to laugh and called my name aloud every time she saw me. (I think she had been a student of Dale Carnegie.)

My roommate and I spent much of our time talking and breaking bread with a lovely couple she knew from Georgia. They had both lost their first spouses to cancer and had found a second chance for love after meeting each other in church. We joined hands before every meal together and prayed that sweet blessing from my childhood: “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.”

Other colorful characters comprised our group, and I witnessed the best of humanity aboard that bus.

Like John Bunyan’s Christian, who wanted to flee the City of Destruction and find his way to the Celestial City, we encountered a few trials along the way, but Mr. Galahad Good-will kept us on the right path. We told tales to pass the time and basked in the beauty of our surroundings.

I’d like to think I often notice the beauty and goodness around me, but this trip made me realize how the good in this world truly does outweigh the bad.

For example, some of us were a little nervous about walking the streets of Manhattan. Namely me! I’d heard stories about the hustle and bustle and the high crime rate. I thought these New Yorkers would be impatient if we Southerners got in their way. My mind immediately went to Deborah Kerr as I worried about getting run over by a taxi. However, my fears were “for naught,” as my grandfather would have said. I didn’t come near a taxi.

While waiting outside the pier to board our ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, we witnessed thousands of bikers participating in a marathon to raise money for MS. NYU cheerleaders chanted encouragement and smiled and waved at all of us onlookers. They were patient with us when we moved into their path. They and everyone along the street seemed to be enjoying the blessings of life. Lady Liberty seemed to be smiling down on all of us.

We often neglect to offer praise or prayers of thanks to God because we take the blessings of life for granted. We don’t take the time to look out and around ourselves to find the joy.

For Every Little Thing (©2021 by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers) helps us to “find joy in ordinary moments.”

The poems and prayers in this book express gratitude to God for everything from morning to nightfall. Children are encouraged to wake up with prayers on their hearts and wonder in their eyes as they experience God’s world throughout the day.

In the words of Arlene Gay Levine, “Today I saw the sun come up and everything was hushed. To me it seemed pure magic to watch the world appear as piece by piece it fell in place all painted by Your brush.”

These simple praises remind me to look for the beauty in the sunrises and sunsets each day, to focus on the neighbor who smiles and waves as she passes by, to listen to the chirping of the birds, and to watch the golden leaves dancing in the wind.

I encourage us all to savor “every little thing.”

With lots of laughter, kindness, patience, and a sense of camaraderie, those of us on this journey bonded over every little thing. New friendships were formed, old friendships were renewed, and precious memories were made.

I am grateful for every little blessing of this past week and for the blessings of my lifetime:  for Christian parents who took me to Sunday school and church, who taught me how to pray and read the Bible, who taught me to see the good in the world, and who taught me to give thanks to the Almighty.

Shelley Hitz gives thanks to God in her book 21 Prayers of Gratitude (©2012 by Body and Soul Publishing). She believes prayer should be a part of our daily routine, and practicing prayer for twenty-one days can help us form a habit.

In her “Prayer of Gratitude #1” Hitz thanks God for His grace:

“Lord, today I want to thank You for Your grace. Grace is simply getting something good I do not deserve. So many times I take Your grace for granted, please forgive me. Open my eyes to see Your grace more clearly in my life. Lord, I ask that You take the blinders off of my spiritual eyes so that I can see all of the gifts You have so graciously given me.”

Yes, Lord, thank you for allowing me this pilgrimage opportunity I did not deserve. Help me to be grateful for Your grace!

Thank you again, Lord, for the beauty of Your world and for tour guides who begin each day with Your Word; for skillful drivers and protection; for family, old and new friends, and cherished memories.

My prayer for my readers as you take this pilgrimage called life is to walk closely with Him by your side. Make time to connect with Him and the goodness around you through prayer and praise and worship.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens.”—Psalm 8:1

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”—Psalm 19:1

“I opened my eyes to the beauty and bustle and bravado of Manhattan.”—from Susan Meissner’s A Fall of Marigolds

“Walking into the dawn, he watched with wonder as the sky flamed with strong color and then faded to a single blue. It was like being in an altogether different version of the day, one that held nothing ordinary.”—from Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”—John Keats

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”—Geoffrey Chaucer

Psalm 24:1; Genesis 1:1; Psalm 118:23; Ecclesiastes 8:17