I
read an article recently about how calling collect is not as common as it used
to be. When I was a kid calling collect
was where you made a call through the telephone operator asking her (nine time
out of ten it was a woman) to reverse the charges. She would place the call for you and you
would wait for her to ask the person on the other end of the call if they would
accept the charges. If they said yes,
then the call did not cost you anything.
When
I was six years old my parents divorced.
At times we lived hundreds of miles away from my Dad but I remember the
times when we would call him. It was not
often but I always knew that if I really needed him I could call him collect. Collect calls were not the only ones you had
to go through an operator for. I think
the most memorable phone calls I made to my Dad were when we lived in Spain. This was before the days of cell, car, or satellite
phones. We made the call through the
Atlantic Cable (a telephone cable which was laid out across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean).
You would say hello and then you would have to wait about four minutes
to hear the other party say hello. The
conversation was always spaced with about four minute intervals waiting for the
sound to travel across that cable from Spain
to the United States and
another four minutes from the U.S.
to Spain. When I reminisce about this I marvel at how I
can pick up my cell phone today and call someone in Europe
and hear them right away as if they are in the next room.
As
I think of all these things I smile and give glory and praise to God that
contacting Him has NO limitations. I do
not have to worry about how much it will cost because He bears the cost of any
call to Him. I do not have to go through
an intermediary to get a hold of Him; I can speak to Him directly. I do not have to wait four minutes between
every sentence I speak to him; I can speak to Him non-stop right away. We have an awesome God Who makes it possible
for us to pray at any time, day or night, trial or terror, good times or bad. I can speak to Him right now, today. There are no limitations to prayer. Call Him today. He is waiting to hear from you!
“In my distress I called upon the
Lord; I cried to my God, and He heard my voice from His temple; my cry came
into His ears.” -2 Samuel 22:7 AMP
