After seeing that prayer was so well received last week at the Plaza, I felt the LORD said, "Now is the time; The Kingdom of God is at hand." So, I started praying about our next move, spiritually. God said to let someone from the crowd pray. That would open the door much wider to acceptance and not rejection.

This morning, 8/28/10, I asked Pops (a different one from the mention of last week) if he would please say a prayer. He politely declined. I then appealed to the whole group, and a new guy quickly said, "I will," only to be followed by a couple of others who offered, too - AWESOME!

I chose the new guy, who I later came to know as Richard. He was about 40 years old and very short with clear physical accents of being Hispanic, having dark hair and dark skin and a strong pronunciation.  

He proceeded to take off his soiled and tattered red hat and bowed his head. At this, everyone followed suit. I kept my eyes open as looking over my flock. I mean... I didn't know this guy at all... just making sure he wasn't about to chant or pray to a Mayan god like Bacabs, the god of the four points of the compass who holds up the sky. (Pshh!)

Then I heard the words that changed my life and perspective of Childlike faith. Childlike prayers.

"God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we are fed. Give us LORD our daily bread. Amen."

A resounding AMEN came from all around. The prayer was over.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I chose the latter. Tears welled up in my eyes. In fact, several of our team wept. No one laughed. Everyone received.

So Innocent. So simple. So childlike. So Divine.

In Matthew 18, Jesus said, ""I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Richard came to Him with a suchlike heart, like a child.

I had to meet this man.

I sat down with him to get to know him a little better. He told me his name was Richard and he was from Ocala, FL, just 30 miles south of Gainesville. He then started to tell me a joke:

"Say we're in New York and we are by Pinehurst (As if I have ANY clue about any place in NY). We are playing a game of golf. You have four choices of who you want to be on your team: God, Jesus, Moses, or Noah. Who would you pick?" I thought for a second and said, "God, He would know how to slaughter in the right way." Richard quickly said, "NOPE! Noah! Cuz when we're done golfing, we're gonna go boating, too!!" - BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh my goodness, it was so funny!