“How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Matthew 7:11 (NIV)
Jesus reminds us in this scripture that we are sons and daughters of a Father, who loves to give good gifts to His children. Sometimes, the little things that seem trivial to others, but bring us joy, are the gifts that God gives us, and He knows what those little things are for each of us.
There is a true story of a man named Dick, who had a hobby of building remote controlled boats. He finished a project which he spent about 100 hours working on and was excited to finally try it out on water.
On a cold day in October, he put the little hydroplane boat on a pond of water. It made it to the middle of the pond, but then stalled, stopped and wouldn’t move any further.
Dick started walking into the pond to retrieve his boat, thinking the pond was shallow, but he suddenly sunk down into a deep section. He was struggling to swim, but with heavy clothing on, he kept sinking. His wife and friend watched in horror, helpless as Dick struggled, while neither of them knew how to swim. Before they could call for help, a young man appeared out of nowhere, wearing only a pair of denim shorts. He dived into the pond and in lifeguard style, pulled Dick out to the shore in safety.
After his wife and friend saw that he was okay, they turned to look for the blond haired, shirtless man, to thank him, but he was gone. It was all very strange, the way he came out of nowhere, wearing nothing but shorts on a cold October day.
Then they saw something that really stunned them. During all the commotion, the model boat was left in the middle of the pond, but now it was lying on the ground right in front of them.
That mysterious man was swift to appear and disappear, yet no one saw him retrieve Dick’s boat, and no other people were in the area, so who retrieved the boat? What human rescuer would even bother to retrieve a model boat as well as save a person from drowning? There were too many questions and not enough answers. That shirtless, shoeless rescuer had to be an angel.
Dick put many hours into building that boat, and God knows about the little things that mean so much to us. He cares about what we care about, probably much more than we realize. God sent an angel to not only save Dick’s life that day, but to give him back his boat, which he worked so hard to build.
We tend to think that God doesn’t care about the trivialities of our lives but He reminds us of His kindness and compassion in special moments like that, since He knows exactly what’s in our hearts. I’m sure that everyone can recall a time in their lives when God seemed to answer a prayer, even down to a trivial detail.
Who doesn’t feel loved by someone who remembers the littlest thing that brings them joy?
A good father knows what brings joy to his son or daughter and he takes great pleasure in surprising them from time to time. God is our good Father, who enjoys surprising us with the little things that have special meaning to us, even if it seems trivial or insignificant, like a remote controlled model boat.
Lord, thank you for reminding us that you are a good father, and of the joy you have in giving us the little things in life that make us happy. Amen
