I am always struck by the way the Letter to the Hebrews describes the Agony in the Garden: “he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” He was heard, the epistle assures us, even though he was not saved from death. That should serve as a consolation to us in our own prayers. Often our prayer is not answered in the way we would have preferred — the cancer comes back, the marriage breaks up, the grudge remains unhealed. But that does not mean our prayer was not heard. Rather, God’s will for us is deeper and wider (and better!) than our own desires.
