What is the main theme in the short-story, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers?

As suggested by the title, “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” revolves around the importance of relationships, because to have the chance to create a relationship “must have taken a long time of good prayers” (192). The maxim of “It takes three hundred years of prayers to have the chance to cross a river with someone in the same boat” necessarily places emphasis on the probabilities involved on two people having any sort of relationship (192). To have that relationship be meaningful, then, like being able to “place your head side by side with your loved one’s on the pillow” and being “father and daughter,” take thousands of years of prayers to make the probabilities work in that relationship’s favor (192).