I wanted a bicycle with every fiber of my being, but we were a poor family. I had been told by my teacher in a Protestant Sunday School class that God would answer my prayers. That sounded more promising to me than begging my hard-pressed parents for a bike. So I told God how much I wanted that bike! I begged, pleaded, probably bargained, but no bicycle appeared. Deciding that my teacher was wrong, I discontinued the nightly kneeling and pleading.
And yet, on the morning of my tenth birthday, a big red bike stood at our back door. Just for a moment I thought that God had parked it there. It surprised me to learn that it came from my parents, that my dad had somehow scraped together five dollars to buy it, secondhand, for me. To me, that was the greater miracle.
That ended my experiment with prayer for quite a long time. Many years later, after I began to study Christian Science, I came to understand that God is not a corporeal personality but is divine Principle, Love. My understanding of prayer was elevated. I learned that prayer is not begging for what I want; it involves knowing the all-sufficiency of divine Love.
