Image of prayer

At communion tonight the guy giving the sermon used an image that I want to record here so I don't forget it - but it's too late right now to do much thinking about it. He was talking about the first part of Colossians and interpreted it to say that Christians should have a different identity, a different outlook, and a different lifestyle. In the outlook section he described different ways of receiving gifts - there's the child-like so-excited-I just-have-to-rip-the-paper-off-and-ooh-look-someone-else-with-another-present kind of approach. But there's also the, probably just as excited but more reflective, way of opening gifts - taking time, shaking it, feeling it, gradually taking the paper off, and then finally standing and looking and appreciating the gift approach - a kind of experience of awe and wonder that someone has taken the time and effort to give this gift to *you*. And that second experience is very close to prayer....