For many years our sons were year-round swimmers, which meant we attended swim meets almost every weekend on some part of the East Coast. Through that activity we met many wonderful swimmers and their parents.
To this day I am very fond of one mom in particular, who constantly displayed a marvelous sense of humor. Midway through a swim meet she’d say to her terrific husband, “Bob, I’d really like a hot dog.” And with a regal wave of her hand she’d add, “Make it so.” Bob, with a chuckle, always got up from the bleachers, went to the concession stand, and brought back a hot dog.
Every once in a while in the public practice of Christian Science I hear similar requests. Oh, not for hot dogs, of course, but for other things: admission to a certain college; the desire for a specific spouse, house, job, etc.—all for the purpose of getting something thought to be essential to happiness. But is the most efficient prayer really to tell God what we want and then to ask God, with a wave of the hand, to “make it so”?
