The Pollen of Prayer…

“A Perpetuating Prayer”

By Shelley M. Reed

Our last home was what many would consider the perfect home.  It was located in a quiet cul-de-sac not far from the Erie Canal which featured waterfront views, biking trails, and quaint shops.  The yard was a bit larger than most but not so big that it was impossible to manage.  It probably helped that the front yard was a flat, blank canvas of emerald green.   Simply stated, all that occupied that space was grass. Lush, thick, fluffy grass.  My husband prided himself in maintaining a brilliant curb-appeal. There was a long, flat driveway that jolted out for extra parking and basketball games.  There was one tree that hovered close to the garage watching over a few colorful flowers and robust bushes that occupied the landscaping around the front door.  A crimson Japanese maple stood front and center as it sported its sharp, serrated leaves, while a petite, thorny rose bush blushed in the corner.  Though quite hardy and burly, stout bushes ended up having to take a backseat filing in front of the windows of the home.  This festive foliage was the welcoming committee for my daughter’s frequented friends and the more often-than-not Amazon delivery man.  If a spectator observed this space from the road, a stark contrast would be had.  The yard to the left of our house screamed this strange peaceful chaos.  We lovingly named this neighbor, “nature woman”.  The silhouette of the trees was blanketed with messy, overgrown vines.  Weeds concealed the emerald lawn.  The house disappeared behind this cluttered curtain.  The yard to the right proclaimed a unique picture of anxious perfection.  Each “i” dotted and “t” crossed.  The shapely plants were meticulously manicured.  The lawn kempt and tidy as if it was daily assigned to a barber’s razor and comb.  Our house stood exactly in the middle of these two extremes.  It was the happy medium.

Walking into the backyard brought similar contrast.  The disorderly neighbor’s side contained a row of trees encasing a mucky pond filled with stagnate, polluted water.  A quick observation of the other side brought an oasis of summer shade and stunning flowers.  Families of hungry birds swarmed around the homemade aviary built for them.   

Then there was our backyard.  Again.  The happy medium.  Most of the space was also the flat canvas of emerald green that was found in the front yard, but about 30 feet out was a thick forest that acted as a privacy barrier to the outside world.   It provided us with an ambiance of nature without complete isolation, and serenity without loneliness.  Walking to the right of the house was my husband’s gigantic storage facility that was home to the riding mower and our overflow “stuff”.  And lastly, circling toward the left was a practical and delicious treat that came with the purchase of the home.  Darting out from the back of the garage was planted a row of charming and mouthwatering raspberry plants gifting us with sweet delicacies during the summer months.  

Now will you join me on a unique journey that started in the summer of 2023?   I began a routine of taking prayer walks, actually prayer circles around important places in my life.  Some places were precious to me like this home.  Others uncharted.   But all became quite significant in some way.  

For the home prayer walk, I often would start at the road walking counterclockwise next to my meticulous neighbor’s property, behind the big barn, turning left along the tree border, and left again at the mucky pond, passing the raspberry bushes, basketball hoop, “nature woman’s” property, and ending up at the road again.  

One afternoon, I decided to take my prayer walk.  I would often pray for each person and place in our home.  My husband.  My children.  Visitors.  Friends.  Family.  I would pray for each room.  The kitchen to be a welcoming place for those who needed a smile or warm meal.  The bedrooms to be havens of rest.  Etc.  That particular day, I cannot remember the subject of my prayers, but I do remember a memory so vivid and impactful that it changed how I looked at prayer.  As I was hugging the tree line making my counterclockwise trek in the back yard, I looked down and noticed an amber colored dusting covering my tennis shoes.  Where did this come from?  I knew my shoes were clean when I started.  Then a lesson so life-changing permeated my mind and heart.  What is prayer?  Isn’t it a way of tapping into an incredible unseen power who has the ability to transform hearts, change lives, and control outcomes.  If that is the case then the pollen on my shoes was a symbol of what my prayers were accomplishing.  As I walked, I was spreading pollen all over our yard, so that seeds could be born, trees and flowers could grow and, in the end, ripened fruit would result like the richness we experienced with our raspberries.   Is not prayer the same way?  As I bathe each person, circumstance, and location in prayer, it is the very thing that perpetuates spiritual seeds to develop in people’s hearts resulting in them bearing eternal fruit.  Was my house the happy medium? Maybe from a physical standpoint, but when viewed on a deeper spiritual level, could it actually have been a perpetuating life source of Jesus spread to both the disheveled and orderly because of a prayer prayed.        

James 5:16 (ESV)

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”