Amen

It would be no surprise if, to Gracia, even in her infant years, language  was punctuated with Amens. Prayers said before dinner end with Amen. Prayers said whenever we hear the cries of other babies always end with Amen. The pre-bedtime crafted prayers from the LullaBible all end with Amen. In church, Amen punctuates the worship liturgy. Then there is the long melodious Amen at the end of John Rutter's The Lord Bless You and Keep You, Gracia's bedtime song (until it got recently replaced by Jesus Loves Me). I reasoned that although babies are not yet able to articulate their own prayers (in language understandable to me, at least), they could at least agree in prayer (and who knows what's invisibly happening in their spirit?). In those early days, I was certainly not expecting Gracia to understand what she was saying. But I knew that it would not be long before she would.

Then one evening, I heard the first Ammm. Before long, it was Amah, then Amahm, then Amahn, and now Amen. Those earlier days, I remember how Gracia loved to practice her new-found skill and understanding that Ammm / Amahm was something to be said at the end of sentences uttered with clasped hands, eyes closed, which began with Dear Jesus and come after In Jesus' name. Her enthusiasm actually motivated me to pray. I had found in my one+ year old a prayer partner! 

Our pre-dinner prayers were simple and repetitive, and functioned well as a prayer frame for my little language-learner. They went something along these lines:

Dear Jesus, thank you for this food. Please help Gracia eat it well. Please bring Papa back home safely. In Jesus name, Amen. 

Gracia has always been a very curious listener, attending to all the interesting sounds we hear in our HDB estate. Often, we would hear babies crying. She would look at me intently with her big eyes, questioning. I remember trying to explain the plausible situation to her - Oh, baby is crying maybe because baby is hungry, or baby fell down, and is pain pain, or baby needs to change diaper. Let's pray for baby. 

Dear Jesus, please help baby not be pain pain, and stop crying. In Jesus name, Amen. 

We'd also pray over each bump or scratch Gracia had along the way - no matter how minor. We'd pray whenever Papa or Mama coughed. Basically, whenever anything was amiss with people.

Sometime along the way, she started to say pray. She began to understand prayer as a response to any situation where something is not quite right, and would ask me to pray:

Pray baby not pain pain. Pray mama ahhuhuhuhuh (coughing sound). 

Then there is Uncle Dan. Uncle Dan is our next-door neighbour, to whom Gracia has taken a fancy (quite from the time she was first introduced to him). Or rather, she has taken a fancy to his name. I can't quite remember how it started, but my little prayer partner constantly asks to pray for him. He isn't a Christian, so I take that as an opportunity to pray for his family's salvation each time.

Closer to two, she started voicing prayers of her own. There was the time when we were cooking a salted egg and minced pork dish for dinner, and cracked open rotten egg upon rotten egg. After two rotten eggs, we prayed that God would give us an egg that hadn't turned bad. I remember Gracia clasping her hands just as I was going to crack open the last egg, and pray one of her first Dear Jesus prayers. Well, all the eggs were bad. And so we went downstairs to the provision shop to buy one, and that was how God answered one of the first prayers of an almost two year old. With a no, but. Well, how about that? A response questioned to no end by overthinking adults, accepted as a matter of fact by a child.

Then there were all the seemingly random jibber jabber ramblings along the way. I remember her starting a prayer with Dear Jesus, just while chattering at the dining table during dinners, with hands clasped and eyes closed, and a little smile, followed by a few sentences indecipherable mumblings, followed by opening her eyes, with a decisive Amen. That must surely be how my prayers sound like to her sometimes!

 Now, at 25 months, thank you Jesus has entered her speaking vocabulary. I've heard her say thank you Jesus when Papa enters through the door halfway through dinner, after we prayed that he'd be back soon a moment ago. 

Now, Amen is not just her response to my uttered prayers. Soon, may it be mine, in response to hers.