I was driving a preschool boy, Michael. one day, and we passed an empty overgrown lot. He said to me, “My mother lives there.” I replied, “Oh sweetie your mother doesn’t live there. There isn’t even a house or anything.” He looked at me, and said, “I know, but you understand don’t you?” Michael needed to think his mother was somewhere. His mother had abandoned him. His need for his mother, generated a child’s solution, for where she was, and why she wasn’t with him. I could see his pain, and it was breaking my heart. So, I talked with him a little bit about his mother.
I wonder if this same thing occurs to us. We know we have a need, but we’re incapable of coming up with the right solution. We petition God, for what we perceive as our need. He alone knows what our souls require. “The Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groaning.” The Spirit expresses our hearts and souls in a way that we can’t articulate, or possibly aren’t even conscious of. It can seem that God isn’t responding to our prayers. He won’t give us a bandaid, like I wouldn’t let Michael think his mother was in an empty lot. He wants instead to heal our soul. He wants to address the need that our limitations can’t remedy. Our Savior wants us restored for eternity.
In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings
And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.
Rm 8:26-27
Veronicas Veil 