The Little Things

The reason I finally created this blog today was because I wanted to write about this. I was reading 2 Kings today, and came across the story of Elisha making the axhead float in the Jordan (2 Kings 6:1-7).  Basically, Elisha's team of prophets are building a place to live by the banks of the river, cutting down trees and such, and while one of the prophets is chopping a tree, the iron axhead he's using falls into the river. Naturally, being iron, it sinks to the bottom right away, and the prophet cries out that "it was borrowed." Elisha miraculously retrieves it by throwing a stick into the same area of the river (Old Testament miracles often seem to have some sort of physical act associated with them), causing the axhead to float to the surface so they can grab it.

What really struck me about this passage is that the loss of the axhead didn't seem like that big of a deal. I mean, I'm sure it would have been annoying, and caused a mild tiff between the prophet and whoever he borrowed the ax from, but there was no major, critical "problem." No one needed to be cured of leprosy, there wasn't any drought or plague, the prophets weren't trying to escape from any Pharaohs. It's just one of those situations where you say, "Oh, crap, my friend's gonna be pissed I lost his ax. He's probably not going to let me borrow anything again. Ah, well. Stuff like that happens." But Elisha hears his complaint and immediately calls on the power of God to turn a very minor issue into no issue at all. Great for the poor prophet, but my initial reaction was, "Is this really worthy of a miracle?"

Well, when you think about it - it definitely is. The very fact that it happened just reinforces the truth that God really, truly cares about us. No issue or problem in our lives is too small for Him. It's not like He's too busy dealing with healing the sick in Africa, or that we're "using up" miraculous power that could be used for something more important. God is everywhere at once, and is all-powerful, and he loves us more than we can imagine. Our minor annoyances do matter to Him, and even something as simple as a stubbed toe can make Him yearn to heal us and provide comfort and peace. I'm not saying we should whine or complain if God doesn't step in and make our lives absolutely perfect all the time, but there's nothing wrong with praying to Him and asking Him to help us with the little things.

This story immediately reminded me of something very similar that happened last weekend. I went salt river tubing with a group of friends, and shortly before we reached the endpoint of our trip down the river, one of the girls in our group lost her camera. Now, her camera was waterproof, so it wasn't so much a problem that it was underwater, just that it was somewhere in this huge freaking river and we only had the vaguest idea of where she might have lost it. We struggled up the current to look for it, and when we first started walking I knew there was no way we'd find it on our own; I wasn't even sure we could make it to the area in which she thought she had dropped it, because the current was making it harder and harder to move forward. Eventually I stopped searching and just started praying, not that we would find it, but that God would deliver it to us. As I was praying, I felt a sort of peace about the situation, like I knew that it would somehow work out. We were just reaching the point where I really didn't feel like we could walk any further, it was just too exhausting, when she shouted to someone floating towards us, asking if he saw a silver camera at the bottom of the river. He hopped off his tube, looked down, and said, "Yup." He dove under before the current took him too far, and came up with it. Just like that, an impossible situation became no big deal. The camera was indeed delivered to us.

Now, just like the prophet's situation, my friend's world wouldn't have ended if she had permanently lost her camera. She would have been upset, sure; she had a lot of pictures on there that she hadn't saved yet, but she would have gotten over it. It wouldn't have caused great pain, it wouldn't have shaken her faith, it would have simply been something that sucked and she would have moved on with her life. But God doesn't want things to suck! He cares about every area of our lives. We prayed, and He turned a small problem into an awesome story of a miracle.