Yay, Broncos!

I’m not a football fan, but it seems you can hardly live in America–much less Denver–without getting caught up in the obsession that is football, especially when the hometown team makes it to the Super Bowl. Mostly I think it’s crazy.

We attend a very small, pretty conservative church. As we arrived at church yesterday morning I noticed a couple of ladies decked out in full Broncos regalia… shirts, jackets, caps. I knew they were huge Broncos fans, but it hadn’t occurred to me how excited they would be for Super Bowl Sunday. I couldn’t resist teasing them when I saw them: “Go, Panthers!” (I had to ask my daughter who the opposing team was. I couldn’t remember.) The ladies, who have special needs and live together in a group home, grinned at me. “Go, Broncos!” they retorted.

They went on to their Sunday School class, and I met with our Sunday morning prayer group. Lyle and I were chuckling with the pastor about how excited they were. The pastor said, “They asked me to pray that the Broncos win!”

Later, during the morning worship service, the pastor was taking prayer requests just before prayer time as is his custom. And these ladies, as is their custom, were sharing their requests. Sure enough, one of them asked that we “pray for the Broncos.” The pastor smiled and said, “Well, I don’t know what the Broncos are doing, but I’m sure they could use our prayer.”

A little girl sitting on the front row waved her hand. When the pastor called on her she was happy to inform him, “The Broncos are going to the Super Bowl! And they are in California right now.”

How he kept from laughing, I’m not sure, because the rest of us couldn’t help it.

“Traveling mercies,” he said. “That’s what we’ll pray for.”

{Photo credit: Laura Cook}