Six years ago a two year old little girl named Charlee Campbell disappeared from her grandmother’s home in Lebanon Junction, Kentucky. Her dog, a pit bull named Penny , disappeared at the same time. A day and a half later Charlee was found in her neighbor’s back yard, with penny beside her. Wayne Brown, her neighbor, had been sitting on his couch praying for Charlee when he looked out the window and saw the little girl and Penny in his yard. He gave her a glass of water and called 911. there had been a search party out looking for her and the relief was palpable in the whole community.

Charlee’s grandmother gave credit to Penny for staying with the child , and “saving her life.”

I read this story six years ago and still it stays in my head. Probably all the details of this little girl’s adventure will never be known, but the outcome is a picture of pure grace: The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we aught to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)

Our own weakness could hardly be greater than at the loss of a very young child. The sense of our own helplessness and fear makes it hard to pray. But God has a provision for this spiritual condition. The wordless groans of the Holy Spirit to God our Father interpret and make known our needs. That interaction between God and His Holy Spirit is supernatural, and put in place for the benefit of God’s all too natural creation, human beings. In the case of Charlee, the interaction included Penny, the dog, but all of creation is accessible to our Father God through His Holy Spirit.

Once when I was confused and upset about something I can’t even recall, I stared at a single tree in a field and began to know that neither the tree nor I was really alone. I believe that the the Holy Spirit had intervened with groans too deep for words.

Even without a Christian neighbor who can pray for us, Good hears and understands the groanings of our hearts through His Holy Spirit, though we ourselves hardly know how to pray. In a world as complex and confusing as our own, knowing of the groans of the Holy Spirit is a great consolation.

Love in Him,

Prue