[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 16/May/2021]
I was watching the Horley Baptist children’s Sunday ‘service’ (HB-K) on line and was quite struck by one of the sketches.
Suresh was sitting at his desk, working, and his daughter was making her way up to him. She looked like she needed help with something she was reading, but she wasn’t quite sure whether she could ask Suresh for help, as he looked like he was busy. After a bit of thinking aloud, she asked him for his help and he stopped what he was doing and said with a smile ‘of course I would be happy to help’.
Allow me to use some artistic license to describe alternative scenarios:
» His daughter does not realise that he can help, so she doesn’t ask him …
» His daughter knows he can help, but has always thought of him as a very important man and is scared to disturb him and so she doesn’t ask …
» His daughter knows he can help, but thinks he must have so much else to do and that there is no way he would be interested in her problem, so she doesn’t ask him …
» His daughter has heard someone say that God helps those who help themselves, so she might as well get on with sorting things out for herself and so she doesn’t ask …
There are probably a few more that you can think of, but let’s just look at these ones again:
» His daughter does not realise that he can help, so she doesn’t ask him.
This could be a picture of people who do not know about Christ. Especially in these challenging times we are living in, people need to know that there is someone who can help relieve their worries. Peter, the apostle, says “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”[1]. It is a good reminder that those of us who do know Christ, need to let others know about Him. I am not very good at this, but by His grace, I will get better.
» His daughter knows he can help, but has heard that he is a very important man and is scared to disturb him and so she doesn’t ask.
This could be a picture of people who know of God, but don’t actually know him, so they have the wrong impression of who He is. That well-known poem ‘Footprints in the sand’ reminds us of the fact that God never leaves us, but carries us through our troubled times. He is happy to for us to disturb Him.
» His daughter knows he can help, but thinks he must have so much else to do, there is no way he would be interested in helping her, so she doesn’t ask him.
This could be a picture of us, when we feel that our problem is too trivial for God to deal with. We need reminding, as someone once said, that in fact, all our problems, are trivial to God. There is none too hard for him to deal with. He is interested in our problems. In Matthew 11 verse 28, Jesus said “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…”[2].
» His daughter has heard someone say that God helps those who help themselves, so she might as well get on with sorting things out for herself and so she doesn’t ask.
[1] Matthew 11 v28 NLT
[2] 1 Peter 5 v7 NLT
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Contributed by David Makanjuola; © the Author
