Different than our prayers

I once knew a man who was up to his eyeballs in debt, whose every inch of living space was cluttered and whose venture into heavenly matters had little if any earthly significance. He sang psalms and would not pay his parking tickets. A proud man, he was nonetheless prone to praying whenever his eyes were opened to the chaos of his existence.  He would pray for prosperity and fame.
The Lord answered this man’s prayer by giving him a wife, who though of overwhelming delight to the man, hardly seemed like the answer to his prayers. Her purse was nearly as thin as his wallet, fame was the least of her ambitions and prosperity she reasoned was no more than to live within one’s means.  She introduced him to the vacuum cleaner and the laundry hamper.
Over time, the man’s indebtedness shrank. She insisted on it. And his house came into order. He had learned to vacuum. And though he had long forgotten his prayers for fame and fortune, he found himself the beneficiary of a million prayers he hadn’t prayed, which had been answered by this woman he loved.  He had someone he could talk to, someone he need not hide from, though he tried.  She would love him despite himself and disrupt him whenever the slumber of indifference sought to drag him back into the chaos which was once his home.  His home was different now.
There is in the gospel story strong evidence for God’s answer to prayer being substantially different than what was prayed for. The prayers of His people would be heavily weighted by their oppression, the agonizing cries of a people under siege.  Some of their prophets had been tortured, some even beheaded. They were bound by laws not of their own making, caught in a culture in contradiction to their own, openly scorned for clinging to narrow minded notion that the gods were not many, but One.
Christ who was God’s answer did not end the crucifixions.  Rather because of him, they increased. Their oppression only worsened. Within a generation of Jesus’ death, Jerusalem their holy city was destroyed.
But a new kingdom did emerge, blessed for its poor residents, comforted in mourning, happy despite persecution, triumphant in death. in every generation being run down and yet in every generation growing.