Answers to Prayer We Don't Like But then We Do

 There are some really beautiful pictures in my file of Singha Park, but I'll get to that in a second.  But for now, take a look at these high powered 'industrial' water sprinklers.  They're important to this story.

For reference, Singha Park is a large and sprawling family attraction close to Chiang Rai that covers 12.8 square kilometers of gardens, lakes and beautiful natural landscapes.  

To make it possible to cover all that the park has to offer, folks rent golf carts, which I am pretty sure was Suradet's favourite part of the time there, just by the way he was giggling as he drove us around.

The day was getting hotter as we took in the various stops, and I was glad for my large bottle of water and my hat.  Still, here we were on our long planned for Chiang Rai excursion, and I did not want to spoil anything but another little episode of dehydration.  

We stopped to feed the zebras, laughing at their teeth.  And said hello to the small animals in the mini zoo.

Of course you have to take a picture with the yellow flowers.   And under the sign.

A lot of it was out in the wide open, and even with a very light cotton dress and my sun hat, I was really feeling it.  I started praying some of those little whisper prayers you pray when you're just staying connected with God as you go along in a slightly distressed kind of way.  Nothing huge.  We were having fun.  But I really wanted to NOT get so hot that I stopped us from doing so.  So I was just keeping it open to let Him know.  

"Thanks for this amazing time, this beautiful day.  Please keep me in the okay zone so we can keep on making these good memories.  But whatever, Lord.  You're in charge.  Up to You."  That sort of thing.

Bell sat down on a large rock thinking it would be good for a photo shoot.

Personally, I was ready to get going, because at least on the golf cart there was something of a breeze.  But this delay was actually quite perfect, timewise.  Because the picture-taking had to stop because the large sprinklers were coming around.  At first just a small spray over the rocks, enough to get us moving.  But when we got in the golf cart and started to drive off, the spray followed us.  And it got stronger and more.  And I was sitting on the sprinkler side.  And Suradet tried to out run it, but this was a golf cart after all.  

The water kept coming at us, on that side of the cart.  And each time it was a bit more, and then more, and then a complete and totally soaking to the skin, all down my right side from my shoulders to my feet.  Because of the sunroof on the cart this did not drench my hair.  I'm vain enough to mention this.  But the rest of me?  At least all on that side of me?  Completely soaked.  

It was hilarious fun.  We were all screaming at the water kept coming at us, and everyone got a little wet.  But I got the brunt of it.

And then I realized something.  It had totally cooled me off!  My body temperature was so much lower now!  And the added benefit of the breeze from driving in the cart only made it better.  And for the rest of the time at the park, I was pleasantly damp in the best kind of way.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I think God is kind of fun.  I truly and totally believe He would go to the kind of trouble to work out that dousing for me, given He already cares enough about me to know the number of hairs on my head (Matthew 10:26-31), and also how fussy I am about how it dries without styling.  

And it also occurs to me that sometimes the answers we're after come to us in surprising ways.  Sometimes it's messy.  Not what we were expecting at all.  But okay in the end.  

None of this is to simplify the more complicated ways we often experience God's answers to prayer, or our perception of the absence of them.  Life is more complex than a fun soaking on a hot day.  But sometimes, sometimes I feel His presence in such loving playful ways like this.  And I think that's okay.