I often think of prayer as “sacred attention”. Attention is at the very heart of prayer—and not just our attention.

While I write this, Birdie, our too-large puppy,  is using all of her fluffy self to try and get my attention. She butts her head against my legs. She wriggles her nose underneath my elbow. She went and got a squeaky gingerbread-man toy and chomped on it a billion times—right by my ear.  Finally, she dropped it on my laptop’s keyboard.  

She is totally begging for attention.

I want you to know, this is absolutely nothing like prayer.

In prayer, we need not demand God’s attention, or do tricks to earn it. As we turn our attention to God, we can know that his attention, his infinite and loving attention, is already on us. We pray to a God who is already listening, watching, waiting for us to return to the conversation.  

Attention is in short supply in our world. I know mine often feels pulled in a billion directions. It is impossible for me to grasp God as a being with infinite attention—but that is God’s nature.

Many of us feel desperate to know that anybody is giving us the attention we are starved to receive.

And yet, God waits for us.

God waits, fully attentive, for you and me.