Prayer ends with a period.

· Poetry,Prayer

Prayer. 

by George MacDonald 

We doubt the word that tells us: Ask,

And ye shall have your prayer;

We turn our thoughts as to a task,

With will constrained and rare.

And yet we have; these scanty prayers

Yield gold without alloy:

O God, but he that trusts and dares

Must have a boundless joy!

I love that this poem's title ends with a period. I don't know if MacDonald titled it himself - if he jabbed that period into place with his inky quill; or if it was an editor's addition; or a typesetter's mistake.

But it speaks to me.

Of finality.

Of settledness.

Of trust.

Trusting to dare to ask.

* * * * *

note: I originally saw this prayer in Mrs. Howard Taylor: Her Web of Time by Joy Guinness (London: Lutterworth, 1949) 293. The original source is: George MacDonald, Poems. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857) 127.