God Speaking

“From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise….” (Psalm 8:2)

When I first came to Canada, I felt I needed to become part of the community in which we lived and decided to volunteer with Meals On Wheels, an organisation that delivered hot meals to seniors who were unable to cook for themselves. At that stage I still had one daughter at home, too young to go to school, and she was my constant companion whatever I was doing during the day. I have never been known for my navigational skills, but nobody questioned me about that and I began being a driver for the meals. One momentous day is firmly fixed in my mind. I had a delivery to a new recipient in an unfamiliar area, and as I drove round and round in circles, becoming more and more panicky, I realised I was truly lost. There were no cell phones in those days and we were too far from where we picked up the food to go back, when I heard a little voice from the back, “Are we lost? Why don’t you ask God to show us the way?” I am ashamed to say my first reaction was, “How can he do that?”, but I wanted to be a good example to my child so we pulled over to the side of the road and we both asked our Heavenly Father to help us. A few moments later while I was trying to yet again to figure out where we were, a car pulled up beside us and to my amazement a lady from our church popped her head out of the window and asked us what we were doing in her neighbourhood, and of course she knew the street we were trying to find.

Jesus knew that we all need to have childlike trust in him. Children’s minds are not cluttered with; perhaps he is not listening, maybe I am not saying the right words, I suppose I am not good enough, he cannot do anything about my big problem, I am not worth listening to etc.

Jesus reminds us that children have a special knowledge of the Father;

“At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit said. “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”…(Luke 10:21)

I have another sweet example of childlike trust that happened many years later. Another one of my daughters, now a mother, was travelling with her family over a mountain pass when a nasty snow storm closed the road and she and her husband and children were forced to pull over to the side and wait for the snow plough. By the time the road was open their car was now trapped behind a big snow bank. My daughter told the family we need to pray to get the car over the bank onto the road , just then she heard loud and clear, “Please Dod”, this little one was just beginning to talk and had trouble with G and D. God did not seem to mind as with one rush the car cleared the snow.

Unfortunately as we grow older we lose that openness of child faith, and feel that now we are adults we have to somehow exhibit strength in ourselves. Not wanting to appear to be weak, not wanting to admit we need to rely on the strength of our Lord; wanting to appear always put together, thinking we have to get through whatever life throws at us, under our own steam. What a lot of pain we could avoid if we imitated childlike trust in our Lord. This verse of an old hymn is a good reminder of how to do that

O, what peace we often forfeit.

O, what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.