The God Box

“Beside restful waters He leads me;

He refreshes my soul.

He guides me in right paths

for His name's sake.” Psalm 23:3

Psalm 23 is very comforting. Verse 4 continues, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me...” If we walk with God, we need never be afraid. 

In the book, “The God Box: Sharing My Mother’s Gift of Faith, Love and Letting Go”, author Mary Lou Quinlan tells the story of her mother and how she put all her prayers in her “God Box”. When her mother died, she found not one but ten boxes full of prayers, big and small. Her mother started the practice in the mid-1980s when a friend noticed that she would listen to many peoples’ concerns and pray for them. Her friend suggested she write these down and put it in a box. After that, when she would learn about someone’s problem, she would say, “I’ll put it in the God box.”

When her daughter talked to her about changing her flooring, she would write, “Please let Mary Lou’s Pergo floor be the right choice”. When her father suffered a stroke that affected his speech, there were many, many prayers that went into the box for that. Each dream, each decision, each desperate prayer would find its way into her mom’s God box. 

This reminds me of the practice of Pope Francis putting prayers under his statue of a sleeping Saint Joseph. He invites Saint Joseph to “sleep on it”. We know that Saint Joseph received the very important warning about the danger of King Herod while he was asleep! 

Wherever we keep our prayers, when we whisper them in God’s ear, or shout it out in desperation, I know He keeps it close to His heart. He even keeps our tears as it says in Psalm 56:8: “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.” He is our good shepherd and He will always answer our prayers in a way that is best for us. We need only to trust in Him.