Stolen bikes and selfless prayer

As I was driving to church one Sunday, I was silently praying for guidance in teaching Sunday School to my two grandsons, who I had in the car with me. I wanted to help them understand the relevance of the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, in their every moment and every day of their lives. Very quickly, I had my answer.

Friday evening, just two days prior, my grandsons’ bikes had been stolen off their front porch. I knew this would be the focus of discussion in our class. My eldest grandson had just downloaded the TMC Youth app “GoVerse” to my phone the week before (see goverse.org). Of course, being on a phone for my grandsons is always an attention grabber, so I thought I would use this new app to begin our lesson. I scrolled through the different subjects. We settled in on three. Forgiveness, identity, and self-worth.

I never mentioned praying to get their bikes back. The focus was to pray for whoever had taken their bikes. We talked about how we can love and forgive a child of God, and that we are all children of God. In First Peter, in the Bible, it says to “pay them back with a blessing” (3:9, New Living Translation). And in Psalms we read, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (37:37 ). I explained that whoever had taken the bikes might not have known they were a beloved child of God, but we can know that about them and their true identity. Each one of us has everything we need through Christ and nothing can be taken from us. We are not defined by what we have or what we think we own.

At first, the boys had difficulty thinking that whoever took the bikes could be a child of God. But we continued to talk about how we can love our so-called enemies, because if they knew they were loved and who they really were, they would act accordingly. My grandsons did grasp the idea that we are benefited by seeing people this way because we are no longer viewing ourselves as victims. We also looked at this verse from Luke, from the story of the prodigal son. The father represents God in this passage: “Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours’ ” (15:31, New Revised Standard Version). 

It was a very inspiring hour. The boys were really beginning to see their own and everyone’s self-worth and true identity. After Sunday School, I took the boys to get a treat and then took them home. I visited with my daughter for a while, and discussed with her that we’d prayed about who took the bikes. I was about to leave when her phone rang.

It was her husband. He was on his way home from the gym and thought he would drive around some different neighborhoods looking for the boys’ bikes. He saw them in someone’s yard. He called the police and waited for them to arrive. The same policeman showed up who had come to my grandsons’ house when the family reported the bikes stolen two days before. The policeman was able to recover the bikes and take them to my grandsons’ home right then.

This was icing on the cake! In Sunday School, we never once discussed the bikes coming back. Our prayers were all focused on blessing who had taken them and seeing God’s children in their true light. Love comes full circle when we pray righteous, unselfish prayers. We were all jumping up and down. Jesus says, “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40 ). One hour of Sunday School is all it took!