It was a cold winter morning, and as mother bundled us up and sent us out to play, my brother and I talked excitedly about sledding again that day. We were tykes of about four and five, and had just gotten a brand new sled for Christmas. As we scampered out the front door with mother’s parting instructions of “Be good, now!”, we both raced for the sled which we had inadvertently left in the middle of the front yard the day before. But our exuberance was soon turned to frustration when we discovered that the sled had frozen fast to the ground because of a slight thaw and then a re-freezing. We tugged and pulled and grunted, but all in vain. The sled was securely anchored!
In our frustration, we came upon a conclusion. The evening before, mother had read us a story about faith and prayer from “Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories. “ And since the characters in the story had exercised the blessed virtues of faith and prayer, we would too! And so hand in hand, we went up on the porch and knelt there in solemnity before our childhood God. “Dear Jesus,” I prayed, “Please make our sled come loose! Amen.”
There was no doubt in our minds but that God had answered our prayer. So triumphantly we rose from our little “prayer closet” and dashed down the yard to the sled. Sure enough, on our first tug, the sled came loose! You say God doesn’t hear and answer prayer? What a boost this incident had on our childhood faith.
Someone has rightly said that faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that He will! Perhaps we as adults have many vital lessons to learn from the implicit faith and trust of children. Jesus said, “Except ye…….become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).