“Let the children come to me…For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.”
Mark 10:13-16 Jesus Christ
I recently read a book called, Why Pray? Forty Days from Words to Relationship. There's a story in that book about a little boy who spent a week with his grandparents who were farmers. Every day the little boy sat on his grandpa's lap as they drove out on the tractor to work in the fields. The little boy's grandparents told him how much help he had been and that they couldn't wait for him to be with them again. The little boy was so convinced that he had been such an enormous help that he prayed for his grandparents at a church prayer meeting, "Dear God, please help my grandparents with all the work they have to do since I am not there. They need me so badly." The little boy's parents chuckled with delight.
We can be like that little boy, you and I. We tend to see ourselves as so important to God’s work, thinking it's all up to us to make it happen. We worry and fret. How can God manage without us? In reality, God longs for us to just put our little hand in his big hand as we sit on his lap on the tractor. That's prayer. That's walking with God throughout the day.
I also read John 2:1–12. Jesus was at a wedding. The wine had run out—a most embarrassing situation for the master of the banquet. At the wedding Jesus miraculously turned many gallons of water into wine. As I read the story, there isn't any sense that Jesus was worried about how he would make more wine. He didn't fret about whether the water would just be water when the master of the banquet tasted it. No, Jesus had his hand in the big hand of his heavenly Father.
Today my heavenly Father asks me to just sit on his lap and put my little hand in his as we drive his tractor out into the fields. He's asking you to do the same. He can provide. He knows what to do. He knows what we need. He asks us to trust him to do his work through us as we reach out to others and ask them if they too want to get up into his tractor and sit on his lap today.
What field are you driving out into today? Are you by faith mindful of being on your Father’s lap; that he loves you dearly and wants you to enjoy being with him as he enjoys being with you? What difference could it make if you more intentionally trusted his love for you and in his provision and power?