“Who are you?” the young teenage boy asked.
It was our family reunion. I had come up from Florida to Virginia to visit with my huge family. Our immediate family included my Mom, Dad, and six brothers and four sisters and their spouses and children. My mother had four sisters who gave us twenty-one cousins. That’s just the beginning. I was trying to remember everyone’s name and how we were related. Since it was the reunion of my great-grandmother’s family, there were a lot of people I had never met.
I did know the young man standing in front of me who was asking the question. He was my brother’s son David. I remember seeing him only twice before. The first time, I had held him in my arms when he was an infant. My brother and I were both visiting my parents and David was sick with a fever. I took him in my arms and walked away from everyone. I whispered a prayer over baby David. I dedicated him to the Lord and asked God to heal him and protect him all the days of his life.
The second time I saw David, my brother and I were both home for Thanksgiving. David was about three years old. He was so cute. The only food he wanted was on my brother’s plate. When I was playing with him, I prayed a blessing over him again. After that, I never remember seeing him until now, standing with him face to face.
“I’m your Aunt Jeannie. I’m your Dad’s older sister, the one who lives in Florida,” I told him, trying to help him make a connection with me.
He thought for a second. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and a beautiful smile spread across his face as he remembered something, “A-hh yes!” he exclaimed, “You’re the Aunt who prays!”
At first I was taken aback. It bothered me that this was all he knew about me because I knew my family sometimes joked about how I prayed about everything. But then I thought, “There’s no other way I’d rather be known among the members of my large family than as ‘the Aunt who prays.’”
In fact, as intercessors, it is an honor to be identified as the co-worker who prays, the neighbor who prays, the grandmother who prays, the woman who prays.
“As for me, far be it from me to sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.” (1 Samuel 12:23 NIV)
Is something on your heart?
Six intercessors will pray for your request for 21 days.
