I know it doesn't work that way, but I also know we can ask, and keep on asking (Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 18:1-8, James 4:2-3). So I'm asking.
This encouragement to keep asking is why I love what happens in the last Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker (2019). (**spoiler alert**) In this movie and the previous one, there's been a running thread of waning hope because the resistance keeps sending out a call for help and no one comes. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) has had an idomitable spirit throughout all the seemingly insurmountable challenges, and he's even taken flack for his willingness to jump in a fighter and fly fearlessly into battle no matter how bad the odds. In the last battle, one that most would have said was unwinnable because the resistance is so enormously outnumbered and outclassed by the First Order fleet, Poe has charged ahead anyway, certain that their distress call will be answered and help will come. When it seems they've tried everything there is to try and still no allies have arrived, even Poe's spirit is crushed and he's on the verge of giving up. Defeat seems imminent. And then suddenly the sky is filled with allies, so many that the ships from across the galaxies far outnumber the huge empire fleet. The resistance fighters are not alone after all. Hope rises again.
This Star Wars scene reminds me of a story in 2 Kings 6. The prophet Elisha and his servant are in the city of Dothan. The enemy king of Aram has sent "a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city" (2 Kings 6:13). When Elisha's servant sees them, he cries out in fear. Elisha tells him, "Don't be afraid, for there are more on our side than on theirs" (v.16). And then Elisha prays and asks God to open the servant's eyes. God does, and the servant looks up and sees that the hills around them are filled with horses and chariots of fire. God's angel army is surrounding Dothan, and the angels outnumber the Arameans. Hope renewed.
It's interesting, however, that it isn't the angel army that solves the problem, though I'm sure their presence helped Elisha and his servant to have the courage to get through it. Instead, Elisha prays. I think I would have asked God to have the angel army scare off the Arameans, but Elisha asks God to blind the Arameans. Then Elisha tells the Arameans that they're in the wrong place and leads them to Samaria. Because of their blindness, they didn't see that the one who was leading them was the very person they'd been sent to kill.
Also surprising, the king in Samaria follows Elisha's advice and doesn't kill the Arameans. Instead, he feeds them and sends them home. After that, the Arameans stayed away from Israel, probably afraid they'd be fooled again.
I love this story because it reminds me that God is greater than our fears, and that though we cannot see the angels who surround us, they are there. I think we need to pray like Elisha more, asking God to open our eyes. What would we ask to see? What are we missing?
We don't always have enemies quite so clearly as they do in this story in 2 Kings, but is there ever a time to pray for confusion or blindness for someone? Blindness is what stopped Paul in his rampage against Christians (Acts 9) and in his blindness he met Jesus and became a Christian. So maybe sometimes blindness is helpful.
God, I struggle with my own blindness. Help me to see what you need me to see and to learn what you need me to learn, and to do what you need me to do. (Is need the wrong word? Do you need anything? Maybe want is better.) Am I blind sometimes because you're slowing me down or pretecting me? Or trying to help me focus on you instead of the problem, or on today instead of the future?
Thank you, God, for your presence with me right here, right now, and always, and for whatever you let me see.
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