The helpers all went to different national parks and spent time exploring them and looking for God-Connections. After a while, the helpers began to return to the teacher to make their reports.
The first helper stood up to make her report, she had been to the Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina. She reported that this national park has more visitors than any other national park in the country. It is also free, there is no entrance fee to get into the park. The reason for this is that before the park existed, Tennessee and North Carolina built a highway through that area. When the park was made, Tennessee gave their portion of the highway to the park on the condition that no fees or tolls would ever be charged to use that road. So, since that road goes through the park, there is no fee to get into the park.
There is also a lot of nature that can be seen in this park; there are wild animals, including black bears.
There are beautiful flowering trees like the laurel and the dogwood, and there are mountain streams and waterfalls.
It is truly a beautiful park.
The helper paused for a moment, and then showed pictures of the smoke in the mountains that give these mountains their name.
The helper said that the God-connection she had found was the bluish smoke that can be seen in these mountains. It is not smoke; it is a chemical given off by all the plants and trees in the park called volatile organic compounds (VOC’s). All plants and trees in all forests give off VOC’s, but it is visible in this park because there is a lot of rain, a lot of sunshine, high humidity, and stagnant air. The VOC’s reflect the blue color of the sky, so the smoke has a blue tint. The Cherokee called the mountains Shaconage – place of the blue smoke.
Manmade pollution, such as smoke from coal-fired power plants, will look either gray or white. A few years ago, it was estimated that up to 20% of the smoke was pollution. Steps are being taken to reduce manmade pollution in the area so that the park will once again only have its natural blue smoke.
The helper said that the natural smoke that rises from the Smoky Mountains reminds her of how our prayers are supposed to naturally rise to God. During the Old Testament times, the priests burned incense before the God and the smoke and aroma of the incense rising up, symbolized the prayers of the people rising up to God.
In Psalms 141:2 it says,
Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.
This same is idea is also found in the New Testament. In Revelation 8:4 it says:
The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.
Application for you and me:
It is amazing, but when a follower of Jesus prays, that prayer rises directly up to God Himself! We do not need to pray in a certain place, or at a certain time, or have a pastor or priest with us. Praying is just like talking to God directly, just like you would talk to a friend! Our prayers should happen just as naturally as the blue smoke rises from the smoky mountains!
Just like manmade pollution destroys the natural blue smoke in the smoky mountains, pollution in a believer’s life destroys their prayers. Our prayer can be hindered or destroyed in several ways:
- Lack of love for God and for others (Proverbs 21:13 Luke 6:38)
- Pride and selfishness (James 4:3)
- Unbelief and doubt (Hebrews 11:6 James 1:5-8)
- Disobedience (Proverbs 10:24 I John 3:21-22)
- Family discord and strife (I Peter 3:7)
- Unforgiveness (Matthew 6:12-15 Mark 11:25-26)
- Unconfessed sins (Psalm 66:16 Isaiah 59:2)
To sum it all up our prayers should naturally rise freely directly up to God, but our prayers are hindered if our relationship with God and with others is polluted.
The teacher said, “Well done! You are a good a faithful helper!”