All at Once

"Why are you watching the football game?" Arcelia asked her older brother. "You said you wanted to watch basketball."

"Yeah, but I'm recording the basketball game so I can watch it later," Brody replied as he munched some popcorn. Just then his phone buzzed and Brody picked it up. A moment later he whooped. "Our high school team just scored!" he exclaimed. "They're playing out of town and a friend is texting me updates."

"That's a lot of games to keep track of all at once," said Arcelia. But Brody was staring intently at his phone and didn't seem to hear her, so she shrugged and walked away.

Before long, it was Arcelia's bedtime. "Don't forget to say your prayers," Dad said when she went to tell him goodnight.

"I won't," said Arcelia. But then she frowned. "I always pray before I go to sleep, but aren't a lot of other kids praying at pretty much the same time? It seems like there would be way too many prayers to listen to all at once. Do you think God has a way to record them so He can listen to them later?"

Dad laughed. "Sounds like you've been hanging out with Brody. God doesn't have to record prayers and listen to one at a time. He can hear everyone's prayers all at the same time."

"It's just hard to imagine that God can hear us all at once," said Arcelia. "How can He do that without switching back and forth between prayers or getting distracted while listening to one person and someone else chimes in?"

"God isn't like Brody or any of us," said Dad. "God is God. We can't understand how it's possible, but He hears everything we say and even knows everything we think. We can never fully comprehend how great and powerful He is, but we know He cares about what we're going through because Jesus died and rose again to save us from our sins. He loves us so much that He became one of us, and He is always with us and hears us when we pray."

"Well, good," said Arcelia, giving her dad a hug. "Goodnight, Dad. I'll go say my prayers."

–Ruth McQuilkin