The newspaper cartoon is a favorite. It concerns the daily adventures of a family with attentive parents and small children. The scene shows the little boy and his mother walking out the front door of the church at the close of the Sunday morning service. There is snow on the church's front lawn. The child revels in wonder. He says, “Yes! My prayin’ worked.”

The reader is left to imagine the previous scene from inside the church. The little boy spent the hour with head bowed, eyes closed, hands folded beseeching God for enough snow for an afternoon's slide down the hill behind his house. When the family greets the scene outside the church he draws an obvious conclusion, “My prayin’ worked.” It is easy to read this week's gospel lesson and conclude that it offers the same lesson: Prayer wo…