Communication is an interesting thing, especially if you are a foreigner living in another country with a completely different language. While living in Japan, I remember using sign language (my own version), and pointing to pictures, or stammering out one or two words of Japanese in order to make myself understood.

On one of those first days, I needed to get a roll of film developed and stopped by a camera shop not too far from my house to take care of this easy task. Well, not so easy. As I entered the camera shop and looked around for some kind of information about film development, I didn’t see anything. So I attempted to ask the owner about how I should go about dropping off my small cartridge and get my pictures developed. I had the film cartridge in my hand and pointing to a picture on the wall, I asked him in plain English, “Could you develop this film for me?” He looked at me with a big smile and said something in Japanese which I could not understand. So I asked him again, only louder this time and in English, “Could you develop this film for me?” He smiled and once again responded in Japanese. And once more I asked him as loudly as I could, “COULD YOU DEVELOP THIS FILM FOR ME?” As soon as I uttered this and saw the stunned look on his face, I realized how ridiculous this had become. Blushing beet red, I apologized, leaving his store as quickly as I could, film cartridge still in my hand.

As I reflect on this episode, I am so thankful that when I go to God in prayer, He doesn’t misunderstand or speak back to me in a language that I don’t understand. No matter the simple words I use, or the inability to express myself clearly, He listens. He understands. He hears me. He answers me.

Call to Action

This then is the promise I cling to, we can all cling to, no matter the language we use on earth:

“ And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."

1 John 5:14,15 (ESV)

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