“The trouble with being a god is that you’ve got no one to pray to.” Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Does God need our prayers?
It is foolishness to Greeks, with their ideal sufficiency.
It is a stumbling block to our proud humility, and yet
isn’t it the nature of Love to desire some response,
some relationship, if only with a memory, if only
in another life?
Lord, you are in the midst of us, and we are called
by your Name.*
And if it is true that we learned this love from you,
what longing must abide in the heart of God?
How can we turn away, when love pursues us
with such glorious desire?
What is the point of prayer, if God has no need of it?
What its possibility, unless God desire us into speaking?
* From Jeremiah 14:9; Daily Devotion At the Close of Day, BCP 140
The Revd Rosalind C Hughes is the Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Euclid, Ohio