The Wishbone

There's a Peanuts strip where Lucy and Linus have just finished a chicken dinner, and Lucy is explaining the wishbone.

"This is a wishbone, Linus. We both make our wishes and then pull it apart. Whoever breaks off the biggest part gets his wish."

"Do we wish out loud?" Linus asks.

"Of course we wish out loud. If you don't wish out loud, the wish-answerer won't know what to bring you."

Lucy goes first. "I wish for a new doll, a new bicycle, four new sweaters, some new saddle shoes, a wristwatch, and about one hundred dollars."

Then it's Linus's turn. "I wish for long life for all my friends. I wish for peace in the world. I wish for great advancement in the fields of science and medicine, and…"

By then Lucy is throwing the wishbone away in disgust. "You seem to have a knack for spoiling everything!"

I suspect most of us have a little Lucy and a little Linus in us.

And if we're honest, a lot of our praying sounds more like Lucy. We wish out loud, so the wish-answerer will know what to bring us. A list.

It's worth noticing how Jesus taught us to pray: "Our Father in heaven… Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." (Matthew 6:9, 11–12)

Our. Us. We. There isn't a single "I" or "me" in the whole prayer. Even when we ask for bread, we're asking for everyone's.

That's the Linus way of praying. And maybe Lucy is right. It does have a knack for spoiling things.

It spoils our small wishes by making our hearts bigger.

Who belongs in your "us" today?

Prayer: Loving God, you know how often we come to you with our lists. Thank you for hearing us anyway. Enlarge our hearts. Teach us to pray the way Jesus prayed: for our friends, for our neighbors, for a world that needs your peace. And give us the mind of Christ, who looked not to his own interests, but to ours. Amen.

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