A Child’s Faith
Children have such an innate ability to believe. They so easily accept as true everything their parents or teachers say to them. Even when it is not true, such as with stories of Santa Claus, Superman, or Spiderman. To the young mind it is all true, if Dad said so. As a child grows, he learns to doubt and question what has been told him. Faith is natural, unbelief is learned. When Jesus said that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one must become as a child, He was referring to this kind of innocence; being able to take God at His Word; believing, without questioning or doubting.
Let me share with you a story I read that illustrates the child-kind-of-faith. It was told by Helen Roseveare, a medical missionary from England to the Dem. Rep. of Congo.
One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward, but in spite of all we could do she died leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We had no incubator and no special feeding facilities. The nights were cold and the days extremely hot. We wrapped the baby in cotton wool and filled up the only hot water bottle we had, but as the nurse was filling the bottle it burst. It was the last hot water bottle we had. We placed the newborn baby as close to the fire as was safe and hoped she would make it through the night.
The following noon I went to have prayers with the children in the orphanage and explained to them the problem we had in keeping the baby warm at night. I mentioned that we needed a hot water bottle and I also shared with the children about the crying two-year-old who had lost her mother. During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. “Please God,” she prayed, “send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.” While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, “and while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl, so she’ll know You really love her?”
I had a hard time saying amen, because I knew that the only way this prayer would be answered if we would receive a parcel from our home mission in England and in the four years I had been in Africa, I had never received a parcel from home. Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses’ training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had already departed, but a large 10 kilo box was left in front of my door. I felt the tears running down my cheeks, as I sent for the orphan children that had been with me earlier in the day. As we opened the box, I lifted out beautifully knit clothes for the children, raisins and some bandages for the leprosy patients. Then as I reached my hand in again, I gasped. Could it really be? A brand new hot water bottle. The children screamed with delight. Ruth rushed forward, crying out: “If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly too.”
Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed doll. Her eyes shone. She had never doubted. That parcel had been on the way for five months. It was sent by a Sunday school class in my home church, just in time to answer the believing prayer of a ten-year-old. I had doubted, but this child’s faith was used that day to save the life of a pre-mature baby.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Mat. 18.2-4; Is. 65.24; Mark 10.13-16; 11.22-24; Prov. 22.6