Prayer is a conversation
with an awesome God who
created me to walk in Eden garden,
who lives inside me, makes me a temple
in which He resides, and nothing separates us.

Our discourse often
starts with my wants and needs,
my hopes and dreams or pain and anger,
with cries of distress for myself or for others.
Still, God responds to my harangue with grace and love.

Finally, after 74 years,
I’ve realized that a quiet mind
before prayer lets God speak first,
acknowledges His wisdom and authority,
His goodness and grace, as one worthy of praise.

For God is the King
over all the earth, He reigns
above the nations, sitting on His
holy throne, highly honored everywhere. ¹
O Lord my God, how great you are! Your word comes first. ²

Why does God wake me up
in the wee hours of the morning
with a picture, a word, or conviction?
He breaks my sleep for the next hour or so,
lassoed, captured, and corralled in its intricacies.

For my sleeping brain had
time to sort, archive, discard,
and elaborate on the days’ events,
and entered into muted, deep, REM sleep.
In the quiet, my eyes and ears are open to you, Lord.

“Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” ³

¹ Psalm 40; ² Psalm 104; ³ 1 Samuel 3:10

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This first song is dedicated to my Dad, Bart Huizenga, who loved to play and sing this song.

This Cynthia Clawson song is one that I still sing in the quiet of my bedroom in the middle of the night.