The Voiceless Prayer and a Toy Airplane

“The truth is that God has a miracle planned for you too, if you are willing to expect it, look for it, and wait for it to play out in God's perfect timing.”   ~Tracie Miles

As you might recall, I checked "pray a voiceless prayer" off of my 30 by 30 list while I was at Notre Dame in September.  At that time, I wasn't sure whether I'd blog about that little event or not.  But over the last couple of months I've had several things happen that made me feel like I should share the story because it might speak to someone else in a way I couldn't know.  Anyway, I was still debating when Super Mom posted about her prayers being answered by St. Therese and a miracle flower appearing outside her church.  So, I figured if she could share, I could share.  Here we go.

Over the course of the year, I had several different ideas of what I might leave for my voiceless prayer.  In the end, I decided on praying my voiceless prayer at the Grotto at Notre Dame, which is hands down one of the most spiritual and beautiful places I have ever been.

 

Given the fact that I'm in this long distance relationship that you all are well aware of, I wanted to leave something having to do with that situation....something to ask that all of this work out to where The Boy from Texas and I can live, you know, in the same zip code (hopefully sooner rather than later!)  I decided that a toy airplane would be the proper item to leave at the Grotto as my voiceless prayer.  But, well, life got crazy and I got behind and ended up on the way to Notre Dame with no toy airplane purchased.  Never fear, Southwest Airlines to the rescue.  I decided that a bag of airline peanuts would serve the same purpose, so my plan was in place.

On a cold, dark September morning, I began a run around St. Mary and St. Joseph's Lakes on the campus of the University of Notre Dame under the shadow of the Golden Dome.  It is my absolute favorite place to run in the world.  I approached the Grotto and it was almost empty, save a man replenishing candles and another man praying. 

 

I lit a candle, knelt for a while, and left my peanuts on the railing.  If you've never done a voiceless prayer, I'd highly recommend it.  There is something special about offering up a tangible item and walking away, trusting that God hears and sees and understands.

 

 

So, then I continued my loop around the lakes and watched the sun begin to come up that morning.  As I finished the run, I was walking back along the path near the Grotto thinking about all the things we had to do that day.  As I walked, I glanced down and something caught my eye.  In disbelief, I knelt down.  A toy airplane.  No lie.  Just laying there.  I hadn't seen it on my way in and there was no one else around.  But there it laid.  I snapped this picture and continued on my way.

 

Well then about 5 minutes later, I realized that I should have picked up the airplane and kept it as a reminder to have faith in this situation.  (I'm a little slow, obviously.)  So I turned around and headed back down the path to pick up the plane.  And it was gone.  Nowhere to be found. 

I suppose that you could argue that all of this could have been pure coincidence.  That some kid dropped his toy and someone else picked it up.  After all, we are now 2 months down the road and The Boy from Texas and I still live in different zip codes.  Perhaps you could argue that it was nothing divine at all.  You could argue that....but I'll never believe it. 

 

When I left the Grotto that morning, as the sun began to rise over the steeples of the Basilica and the campus would soon be bustling with people and bagpipes and drumlines, I took with me a gentle reminder that God is there.  That He hears our prayers, even the voiceless ones.  That He answers them, albeit maybe not in ways that we would expect.  And that we must have faith in Him.  Even when we are left with no tangible proof that He listens, we must have faith that He does....listen, hear, and answer in his time.