(Today’s repost is from November 8, 2010.  It is a guest post from Rich Dixon who frequently helps me think in the comments. Thanks to Joel for the request.)

I’m challenged by Jon’s recent articles about prayer. For some reason, I thought about show-and-tell.

Remember show-and-tell? Bring an object (or person or pet) to class and explain why it’s important.

Like all good communication, show-and-tell felt vulnerable. You couldn’t simply display the object or write a report. Show-and-tell taught us the challenge and risk of revealing something about ourselves and what matters to us.

I think prayer might be a lot like show-and-tell.

300 words began 2010 with a journey through John’s gospel. We’ve taken a number of side trips, but our ongoing conversation about prayer took me back to John’s opening paragraphs and his beautiful, powerful metaphor: Jesus as the Word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus is God speaking into the world. Displays and written reports aren’t sufficient because His kingdom isn’t about ideas and concepts so much as it’s about relationships. We can’t just read and think and talk about the words. To really get it, we have to engage with the Word.

In The Message John says, “The Word…moved into the neighborhood.” He wants to get to know us over the backyard fence.

Jesus is God’s way of being vulnerable, taking a risk to show and tell us the essence of who He is. God communicates Himself to us—His nature, His character, and His purposes — through the simple, powerful process of show-and-tell.

Show-and-tell included interaction, but the questions and discussion were prompted by the starting presentation. It didn’t make sense to blurt out reactions before you watched and listened and understood what the speaker wanted to communicate.

Hmmm … show-and-tell. Watch and listen, learn what the speaker thinks is important about himself, then comment and ask questions.

Could that be what God had in mind?