Years ago, we took our preschool sons to attend an outdoor garden exhibit of foreign customs around the world. It was a beautiful exhibit and both of my young sons were extremely impressed and interested. One booth said that the custom was stand in line and tell the wish to the wish taker in the booth and the wish would be granted. The sign said guaranteed. Unfortunately, our elder son could read and he immediately began to tell his brother and they both wanted to, as the British say, “queue up”. Equally unfortunate, the line was extremely long & the most popular exhibit. Using this time to defuse the disappointment seen from the other children leaving the booth and the booth operators explaining gleefully that guaranteed was actually a separate sentence than the wish making. The line began to be silent and unhappy, all the children sensing adult attention began to be silent as well. After unsuccessfully trying to coax the boys to another activity, the time was right to explain to our boys the difference between a wish and prayer. We had never considered the difference with the boys and they were young and wanted it fully explained.Several times it was explained: a wish is something you want and try hard to imagine getting. A prayer asks God what you want in the name of Jesus and then we ask God to direct what we want to be what He thinks we need. Several times my sons asked questions. A wish doesn’t involve God, just what you want. A prayer asks God for help and then we ask Him to provide it if He sees fit. My older son decided, “Wish was better, (when would we get to the booth?”) I explained again, no, asking God will be better because then Father God hears you if you ask him. My son said, “Then you have a better chance?” I answered yes, definitely, but He gets to decide in the end. My son decided that prayer was better just as we stepped up to the booth. We had annoyed some people unintentionally and I heard one person mutter, “Good God!”
In the conversation to defuse the disappointment, I had never asked my bright, shining son what he was going to ask. He stepped up to the booth and said, “I am changing my wish to a prayer and I want a huge, very blue dragonfly, please.” Now even the gigglers in the booth looked concerned. The couple, leaving the booth in front of us, were in their 60’s, they gasped loudly in unison and wheeled about. The line became very still with expectancy. The woman, part of the couple, lowered herself to eye level with my son & said, “What color?” My son said, “Only blue, please.” The couple looked at one another, it was an odd look. The woman continued, “Alive or dead?” My son replied, “I didn’t think about that. Either. Do you have one?” The woman opened her handbag saying,” I just found this on the ground. Do you want it?” My son replied, “Yes, please. I really did want a blue one! Thank you!”
At this point, the line went wild. Friends and family were called to join the line and all of them began to explain that you had to change your wish into a prayer. Prayer and wish began to be explained through the whole line. As my family and the entire line still reeled, my 6 year old son began to be asked if Jesus was important in the asking. My son said he asked in his head for Jesus.
Several years later, we moved and we back up to a large pond. Our summers are now filled with dragonflies. My son kept that blue dragonfly until it was dust. My sons share a bathroom and they explained the blue rose wallpaper that came with the house was a sore subject with their boyhood guests. We changed it into sand and white stripes, stenciling huge dragonflies on to the stripes.
Psalm 8:2,5-9
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [or than God]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
December 2003 issue of National Geographic magazine: Dragonflies can fly forward and backward. Their unique eyes (with over 30,000 lenses) give them the ability to see 360 degrees around their body and they need this, because dragonflies can literally execute a hairpin turn at 100 kilometers per hour. At that speed a dragonfly can experience a G-force of about 25 times the gravity of earth. In comparison, the most gravity force that a human fighter pilot can sustain without blacking out is about nine Gs. Pilots black out under such pressures because all of their blood rushes from their head to their legs. But how does the dragonfly keep this from happening?
Surrounding the internal organs of the dragonfly, are special bags of fluid. When the dragonfly executes one of these hairpin turns, these bags of fluid place pressure upon its internal organs. This keeps the 'blood' in the dragonfly's brain from being forced into its lower organs. Because the dragonfly's 'blood' is not forced out of its brain, the oxygen in that 'blood' keeps the dragonfly "awake."
The genius design that is evident within the dragonfly tells the true tale. The dragonfly did not evolve; it was created, by a Power that knows a lot more about air travel than we do.
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