One of the favorite things our friends at Life Care Center love to do during worship is to lift up their hands in praise. Baptists, Catholics and Presbyterians are all joining in to lift those hands up in the name of Jesus. We who live in the comfort of our own homes, have a lot to learn about worship from them. We can just jump in our car to go to church but sometimes might rather sleep in or go to the beach. But they push only get around in wheelchairs, they eagerly push themselves up the hall and with big smiles on their faces join us for the Friday service. Why not join in with us? Let’s give God thanks for today and lift up your hands in His name!
Faith of a Five-Year-Old
“In Jesus name Amen,” I said after blessing the food before lunch at kid’s summer camp. Suddenly a tiny voice piped up from one five-year-old girl asking,
“Hey Pete, why do you take your hat off when you pray?”
I was taken aback, first, because I was amazed that she paid such close attention to my prayer, and second, because no one had ever asked me that before.
“Well,” I slowly cleared my throat in an attempt at gaining a moment to think, “It’s in the Bible. Men have to take off their hats, but not the ladies.”
Seeming to feel that was good enough, my five-year-old friend smiled and nodded and then began munching on her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She was satisfied, but her question got me asking myself, “Just why do I take my hat off, close my eyes, or bow my head when I pray?” Then I recalled that my mom had taught me to pray, “Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive. Amen.” Those were simple words, but they covered just about everything that God expects when we pray. In the book of Luke, Jesus tells a little story about how two men prayed.
Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Luke 18:10-12
Without even reading the rest of the story, we already know who Jesus wants us to be like. Maybe that Pharisee would have even prayed differently if he had just taken time to listen to himself. God also loves it when five-year-olds humbly ask honest questions about prayer, then respectfully listen to the answers, before munching on their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And Jesus loves it when we pray with the faith of a child, listen with their willingness to learn, and then gratefully receive those gifts that He has prepared for us to receive!
Before I Knew Him There
I did my best to visit but
Her memory was thin
And she kept asking if I knew
When she’d go home again
“What difference can I make?”
I asked and slumped down in my chair
“In just an hour or so she will
Not know that I was there”
So, I slipped out of the doorway
Hoping that perhaps I’d find
The answers to the questions
Parading through my mind
After I walked a mile the rain
Began to fall and I
Started looking for a shelter
Underneath a tree nearby
There clinging to its highest branch
Stood a cardinal and he
When he saw me started singing
In his cheery joyful glee
And His melodies brought memories
Like echoes from a well
Reminding me of promises
That I only knew too well
Of my Savior and His passion
And the cross He chose to bear
To pay the price so high and deep
Before I knew Him there
"… to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Ephesians 3:18b-19 NIV
Before I Knew Him There
by Peter Caligiuri
Copyright © 2025 All rights reserved
I am dedicating this poem to the memory of my precious stepmom Amy, (pictured in the feature photo with my dad.) Amy battled Parkinson’s Disease for the last 6 years of her life and passed away in 2004. Though the scene in “Before I Knew Him There” is an imaginary composite, it is one that I see a bit of every week as I visit in the memory care wing of a local facility. I also dedicate this little poem to all those whose loved ones are passing through the veil of memory loss, or who are perhaps beginning that journey themselves.
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