"Except you have faith like this little child, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven"
Years ago, we were living on a small ranch in the middle of Oregon. It
was a wonderful life and a great experience for the kids. We had sheep,
goats, a pig, a whole bunch of chickens and even for a while a miniature
pony. The older kids all had their own animals to take care of but one
of my younger daughters was only maybe 4
at the time and she wanted a pet too so we got her two goldfish. She
named them Hoover and Huuuuver. It was pretty cute when she would talk
about them because they both basically had the same name but the latter
had a long drawn out UUUUUU in it. My daughter loved her two goldfish.
One morning, we woke up and Huuuuver was laying on the surface of the
water upside down with a certain bubbly mire surrounding him. I touched
him repeatedly and well, there just was no response so we took the
fishbowl in the kitchen. I guess he had died during the night. My poor
daughter was devastated because Huuuuver wasn't responding and she got
pretty upset. I walked into the living room and she came up to me with a
desperate worried look on her face and started grabbing onto my pants
leg almost begging me, "Daddy pray to Jesus to HEAL Huuuuver!!!" over
and over again.
I just didn't know how to explain that
Huuuuver was dead and she just kept pulling on my pants and begging me
to pray for him. It was agonizing to see her so upset and worried.
Finally, maybe just to calm her down and give me a few minutes to think
about how to explain this all to her, I took her hands and prayed, "Lord
Jesus please heal Huuuuver..." I honestly didn't have the slightest
faith that God was going to do anything. She seemed to calm down when I
prayed so that was a tremendous relief.
A few minutes later, I
went into the kitchen and Huuuuver was swimming around like nothing had
ever happened and Leah was so relieved that Jesus had "healed"
Huuuuver...
Now I gotta be honest here and tell you that it
never really crossed my mind that God was really going to heal Huuuuver
much less raise him from the dead. I just really was pressed for God to
intervene and give her some peace. (Which He did.) That's the mature
"Christian thing to do" right? Well my daughter didn't understand any of
that. She was just utterly convinced that if we prayed to Jesus to heal
Huuuuver that God was going to do that... And, He did!
Now,
if you were to ask my daughter roughly 22 years later if she remembers
that, she would tell you that she doesn't. So you might say what is the
value of her having that experience if she doesn't remember it? That
certainly is a legitimate question and I think this morning when this
came to my mind I may have gotten an answer to that question.
When a great tree drops a seed to the ground does the tree remember it?
Regardless of whether the tree remembers the seed or not, that seed
falls to the ground and in effect dies and is buried and may be long
forgotten. And yet, that seed merges with the ground of life and it is
watered and it sprouts and if no one comes by and steps on it, that seed
will grow into a great tree. That forgotten seed is destined to become a
great tree whose shade and fruit will bless all those that pass by it.
Never underestimate the faith of a little child even if later it falls
to the ground and dies forgotten whether that child of God be 4 or 40,
"for of such is the Kingdom of God..."
But woe to you if you pass by and see that seed starting to sprout and you step on it...
