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Lap and Lapping - We often need and use more than words for truly communicating our intentions.
Out walking, we could take a lap around a block. Switching meanings, pets will often lap up some water. And, on an oval track, racers can be watched lapping other contestants, while animals can be observed lapping up whatever drink is available. We use the same words for different realities as when a child sits on someone’s lap, but roofers work at lapping layers of shingles for a house. Words like these and very many others serve as meaningful abbreviations, so we do not have to describe in detail every action or object. Words can be exceedingly helpful for much of our communicating with one another, but because words can carry different meanings that depend upon the context in which they are used, we cannot rely exclusively on words to convey our intentions.
With a minimum of reflection, we can recall how we modify and clarify whatever we say by resorting almost to sign language in our gestures and facial expressions. When we want to be understood, we rightly take communication seriously and bring our whole selves to the activity. Without thinking about it, we move from mere presentation of a statement similar to the functioning of AI, to a spiritual plane where elements of concern for the quality of our relationship with others has effects on every aspect of how we share whatever is in our minds as well as in our hearts.
We would probably not think about it this way, but the caring efforts we make in relating with others is very much like prayer. Or, from a slightly different perspective, praying is very much like all sincere desires that our intentions be valued and accepted when we relate with others. Without our necessarily perceiving it, God is as active and intimately involved in our communications with one another as when we are praying.
God uses words in relating with us, through Scriptures, Liturgies, and faith-sharing groups that convey truths to guide how we live, and that reveal God as friend, lover, and the one who saves us from the consequences of our own errors of thinking and acting. Like us, God also uses non-verbal messaging when we are attentive and open in prayer, listening not just with our minds but with our hearts. In so doing, we sometimes perceive inspired thoughts, but also a sense of well-being, acceptance for who we are, and an awareness of peace that pervades us.
When we take time for communicating with God, revealing ourselves in simple honesty and receiving much more than that in God’s self-revelation, we are much more likely to notice how God is present with us in our conversations and interactions with one another. Our experience is that of the one and the same Love present and active in all caring communications, whether with God or with others.
We become like children, content to sit in the lap of God who loves us, and God comes to us, content to sit in our lap as a beloved child.
Last Updated 10/17/2026