Luke 12
By Pastor Libby
If Puppets could talk…
It was the summer of my sixth grade year and right before school dismissed for vacation I went skating and green broke my right wrist. Swimming was not an option for the rest of the summer as I was in a cast but the library was. It was that summer that I learned how to be a ventriloquist.
When small children see me perform with my vent figures Sadie or Danny A. Oakwood inevitably they are drawn to the puppet’s voice and personality, missing that I am the one really speaking. Many times they want to know how the figures talk but they just don’t get it when I am honest with them and say I speak through or for my puppet friends. It is a bewildering thing when you are only five or six years old.
There are times in my life when I wish for someone to speak through me so that I don’t mess it up so badly. It is times like this that I would like to be the vent figure or puppet rather than the ventriloquist, the one pulling the strings. One time such as this I was standing at the hospital bed of a young woman who had just lost her first baby. There were no words to say, her grief was so evident. I was there to pray with her and I wasn’t even sure I could articulate any prayer out loud into that dark, sterile room. It was then that I asked the Holy Spirit to guide me in praying for this young woman, and give me words of comfort to say over her in a blessing and prayer. God did not leave me silent, that day the Holy Spirit taught me what to say.
When you find yourself at a loss for words, and know that the situation calls for someone with a love and passion for Christ to find a voice and lift it in prayer, figure yourself to be the “designated driver.” Fervently ask for the Holy Spirit to guide you and give you the words to say. You might be surprised yourself at what comes out of your mouth!
