Bright's Pond could be any little town in the US. It's a place where everybody knows everybody. As I was reading, I imagined it to be a little like Pittsfield, Illinois, a place I lived for almost ten years. The Blue Moon Cafe in the story could easily have been the Cardinal Inn. If you've ever lived in a small town, you would understand the "feel" this book has.
Barnes and Noble offered The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow as one of its Free Friday selections last year around Christmas. I put off
reading it because I always seemed to have something else I wanted to read instead. But last week I decided to give it a try, and I’m glad I did. I found the book to be quite charming and not what I expected. What did I expect? I expected a story deep in religiousness. Boy, was I wrong.
The story centers on Agnes, a 700 lb. woman who is unable to
leave her house because of her massive size.
She is cared for by her sister, Griselda, the town librarian. Agnes has devoted her life to praying for the
residents of Bright’s Pond. Their prayer
requests range from car trouble to bleeding ulcers, from marital problems
to heart condition and everything in between.
Agnes is credited with a few miracle cures and the townspeople are very excited about this. So happy in fact that they want to put up a new sign on the interstate that says, "Welcome
to Bright’s Pond, Home of Agnes Sparrow." Agnes is totally against this. She gives all the praise to God for any
miracles that have occurred, but the people won’t listen to her or her
sister as they try to fight it. They continue to bring more and more prayer requests to Agnes and Agnes continues to pray for them because as she herself puts it, "It's what I do."
Agnes’s notoriety brings a stranger to town looking for his
own miracle. His unspoken prayer request
is answered in a horrific way causing the people of Bright’s Pond to turn their
backs on Agnes. She begins to question herself, her reasons for praying
and even starts to think she might be the cause of what happened.
It’s at this time that Agnes confesses to Griselda a secret
she has been keeping since childhood. When
the secret is revealed, we begin to see why Agnes has let herself gain so much
weight and why she has taken up praying as her vocation. Revealing this secret brings relief to Agnes
but causes Griselda mental anguish. Only
after much soul searching can Griselda come to terms with what Agnes has
revealed and why she has devoted her life to her sister.
While the actual prayers
of Agnes Sparrow are not the main focus in this book, they are very important
to the story and how it progresses. The same goes for us. The words of our
prayers are not as important as we would like to think. The Bible says in Matthew 7:8 —
“And when you pray, do
not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of
their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows
what you need before you ask him.” (NIV)
How comforting! It blesses my heart that my Heavenly Father knows
me so well that he sees what I need before I can utter the words. What an awesome God we serve!!
The next time you find yourself in a
situation where you need God’s help but don’t know how or what to ask, don’t
worry, He already knows. And the next time you are looking for a light-hearted book to read, full of wonderful characters that come to life on each page, think about picking up The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow. You will be pleasantly surprised, just as I was.
Be blessed,
~ P
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