Greig writes with humour and clarity about the first time that he fell in love. He recalls how he had been attending a boy's only private school and how he had been educated by world class eccentrics. When Pete was ten the school went co-ed and two girls turned up at the start of the following term. One of them, and Pete names her as 'Annie' attracted the attention of most of the boys. Pete was smitten and prayed earnestly that he would receive her affections. He didn't. His prayers were not answered. I guess that most of us have our own "Annies" or "Andrews", people that we really liked when we were young and who never even realised we existed.
More to the point, we may have an Annie or an Andrew figure in our adult lives. Someone that we had a relationship with, went out with and it didn't work out despite our belief that it would have been perfect and God's best for our lives. Perhaps the Annidrew (my word) that you are thinking about right now is not a person at all. Perhaps there was a job that you applied for, thinking that it would be God's best for you to have it and you didn't get it. Perhaps there was a house you wanted in your dream location and you were "gazumped" (it does still happen). The list is endless.
Well Pete did meet his Annie again years after he left school. She was still uninterested in him, but the girl that he had once seen as a beautiful butterfly had metamorphosed back into a 'cute but clumping caterpillar'. Pete's response was to thank God for not answering his prayers.
Clearly some unanswered prayer has more serious repercussions than others and I am not trying to say that our life always works out better after God has not answered our prayers. There are too many young war widows for that. There will be situations when we never have the chance to understand why our prayers have not been answered this side of eternity. However, the Pete and Annie parable has its place in helping us to understand why some prayers are not answered. God had a different girl in mind for Pete. If Pete had married Annie, then I doubt God on Mute would ever have been written.
For prayer…
Bring your Annidrew situations to God and talk to him about them.
John Martin-Jones
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