Her Prayer in the Desert

by Virginia M. Kimball, S.T.D.

"O Lord, hear my prayer … let my cry come to you.

Do not turn your face away from me.

When I feel abandoned and lonely,

listen to my troubles … hear me right away." (Psalm 101)

Imagine Mary carrying her fragile newborn son,

wrapped tightly next to her body for warmth

along the desert trail … sand blowing, shrieking

cold winds tearing at her face, sobbing as she rides.

Prayer wells up in her heart, and she remembers;

she whispers softly to God this ancient prayer: 

"I have become like a pelican of the wilderness,

like an owl among the pharaoh's monuments." (7)

Picture Mary finding shelter in a stranger's place,

Joseph and the host helping her to eat and rest,

fleeing refugees in the foreign land, welcomed

always in another woman’s home, a silent kind of stress.  

Then again, begging God to obscure their way,

from searching Roman soldiers, and at best …

wand'ring in this desert stay, upon Nile's delta plane, 

searching for another haven .. a grueling daily test.

Almost like a child Mary reminds this God: "We will not be

afraid of terror in the night, nor pestilence that walks in darkness," (Ps 91:5-6) 

"Because I have made Yahweh, who is my refuge, my dwelling place,

no evil, no plague will befall us." (9-10)

"It is in You I will trust." (2)