Wisdom of a Child

I am writing this post from a library in Decatur Indiana. I arrived here early this afternoon after spending the night with another set of my parents college friends in Huntington. The weather is absolutely beautiful and a welcome change given the rains of the past couple days.

I found a coffee house and have been relaxing there for a little over an hour deciding whether to stay here or press on before I lay down for the night.

There is a moment that keeps coming back into my mind and it's a story from two nights ago. In my last post, I mentioned that I was staying at a home with four very vibrant children. Soon after I arrived and was welcomed by this energetic bunch, their 8 year old son was so excited about my journey and God's provision that he went searching for a gift for me. After several minutes he appeared in the living room with a handfull of change. I couldn't imagine a child giving me the contents of his change jar and genuinely said, "You don't need to give me anything, God will provide." To which he replied "maybe God is using me to provide for you." And there I sat, silenced by the wisdom in an eight year old boy. All I could do was hold out my hand and fill my pocket with his precious gift.

I have been amazed at how stubborn my heart is. I, who left with nothing, saw God provide for everything in gifts of food and money. Yet, when the money that I have starts to diminish, I still have this stubborn fear that without money, I can't go on. How can I, who has been so blessed, even begin to doubt. With this in mind, God pressed it on my heart how much he has blessed me and will continue to do so; so I do not need to fear blessing others with the gifts He has given. There is still part of me that is very afraid to give out of the little that I have, but I am praying to meet people who have a very specific need that I can meet.

My promise to God this morning was that I would bless the first person to introduce themselves to me today. That person was the owner of the coffee house who is the self procalaimed sole liberal in this town. After talking with him, I could not tell if he had any specific need that I could meet, but I had made a promise and could not walk away without leaving a sizeable tip.

Often I wonder if there are times when God is simply aksing me to trust, to step out in faith, just to see if I will. Like Abraham who was aksed to sacrifice his only son (but much less dramatic). Without knowing the reason, Abraham obeyed God and would have done the deed had God not stayed his hand. God's question in all of that was, will you trust me? I love what is often said about Abraham in the scriptures, "He believed God and it was credited to him as rightousness."

God has proven Himself and even though I have little, God provides out of the riches of His kingdom and I will not worry.

Is not life more important than food.

Christopher Andrew