God Working In the Little Things

Still feeling pretty awful, and not really able to do anything that involves a head that isn't aching and sinuses draining like firehoses. So settled to do a little Bible reading. I am currently reading 2 Kings, and was reading the chapters about Elisha, the prophet of God who follows on the tail of Elijah. Elisha does some pretty spectacular miracles, which for some reason, I accept without question: raises the dead to life, provides the livelihood of a widow through a single jar of oil, changes poisoned stew to sustenance for a community, and feeds one hundred hungry people with twenty loaves of bread, with some leftover. But then I read about him going off to help the "company of the prophets" build shelter for a meeting place. While doing so, an ax head flies off the handle, into the water, and sinks. Elisha throws a stick in the water and the ax head floats and is restored to the distraught worker.

What?

I don't know, but for some reason this one struck me as ridiculous. It isn't so much that I didn't believe he could do it as much as why...and why record it in the litany of miracles that provide life and sustenance?

While pondering this, I had a cup of cold water. I drank slowly, because for weeks, my teeth have been sensitive to cold. I assumed it was the crown work done, even though they should long ago have stopped hurting from that. But as I drank the cold water, I realized my teeth didn't hurt...at all. And then I realized that this dreadful illness I have had, which finally sent me to the doctor was probably responsible for the several weeks of tooth pain! The sinuses bump right up against the teeth roots. It made total sense that infected sinuses would make my teeth hurt. I found myself suddenly grateful for the more acute illness that finally propelled me to take action on a long-standing problem.

Perhaps, the floating ax head was a similar sort of experience. At first, the ax head flying into the water seemed to be a catastrophe. The man had borrowed the ax and could not replace it. He became very distraught, showing in my mind, less than perfect faith in God. Not good if you are a prophet of God! After all, the "company of the prophets" were the folks that prophesied and proclaimed the word of The Lord. Maybe he needed a little commonplace proof of God's love and provision. With a completely unheard of solution, the ax head was restored. The prophets could finish their work, but maybe more importantly, they knew that God cared about even that minor need of an ax. The catastrophe led to a greater good - restoration, and presumably bolstered faith.

Sometimes the setbacks, the struggles, the illnesses, and pains of life help us see things we may not have seen. Or take action we may not have taken. Or turn to God with helpless abandon because our own resources are at an end.
The floating ax speaks to me of God's amazing love and provision even in the little things that so often threaten to overwhelm us.

****************
2 Kings 6:3-7 NIV
[3] Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied. [4] And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. [5] As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!” [6] The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. [7] “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.



-save a dog- hollowcreekfarm.org
http://www.amazon.com/Vicky-Kaseorg/e/B006XJ2DWU