The Floating Axe
by Sara Rivas
Hello Church Friends and Family, I hope you’re all doing well. I’m hoping that by now everyone has already started back in school. My boys started about a week, two weeks ago now. And they were a little apprehensive about starting at a new school, they were a little worried. And there was a story that I shared with them that I would like to also share with you. And that was the story of Elisha and the prophet and Elisha’s axe.
So as we were driving down the freeway, we happened to see a picture of George Washington and his axe. And it reminded me of how we can trust God to take care of all of our problems, even our little problems. And so in the story found in Second Kings 6:1-7, there’s a prophet and they’re working to build a new school. And they don’t have a lot of funds. They don’t have a lot of money. And so one of the prophets decides he’s going to borrow an axe. And as he’s working to cut down the tree, they happen to be next to the Jordan River and the axe head just pops off of the handle and it flies straight into the river.
And so he runs over to Elisha and he trusts Elisha and he says, Elisha, Elisha. You need to help me. I borrowed an axe because I couldn’t afford to buy one. And now the axe head has just fallen into the river. Can you please help me retrieve it? Or, you know, help me. What can I do? And so I’m sure Elisha’s in constant communication with God, and so God gives him the idea of why don’t you throw a stick into the river. And when he does, the axe head ends up floating up. miraculously, because God is working through Elisha, and the prophet is able to retrieve that axe head and continue doing what it was that they were doing.
But simple things like, Oh, I borrowed something and now I broke it. You know, God cares about that, or I’m scared. It’s my first day in class. I’m in kindergarten now or I’m in, I’m in middle school this year or I’m in high school. or first day of college, like it doesn’t matter. We all still get first day jitters, but God cares and He is there for you.
There’s another story that I wanted to share with you and that’s found in Mark 10:13-16. And this story is actually found in multiple books of the Bible, but I just picked Mark, but it just talks about how these parents were bringing their children to Jesus and they specifically wanted Jesus to put their hands over their heads. and to pray a blessing over them. And so all these parents are kind of gathering around and all these kids are getting close to Jesus and the disciples are like, no, stop you guys. I don’t think Jesus has time for this. And they’re kind of shoving everyone off. But Jesus says, no, allow those kids to come to me. I want kids to come to me. And so he’s telling the disciples that kids are really important to him and that he cares about you.
So it doesn’t matter whether you’re a child or you’re an adult or you’re, you know, somewhere in between, God cares for you. You were never too small or, you know, have too many problems for him to not worry about you. He worries about all of us, which is really nice and sweet. And so at the end of that story, he ends up inviting the kids to come to him and then he does pray over them. every single one of them and I thought that was really sweet.
All right, so I’m gonna go ahead and close with some prayer. So, close your eyes please. Dear Heavenly Father, we love you so much and we thank you for the opportunity to come to you to ask you for help whenever we need it. Thank you because you’re just one quick prayer away. Thank you because you care about our everyday, our day-to-day things and there isn’t anything too small or too silly that we can’t come to you with. We love you so much and we thank you for dying on the cross for us. Please be with us the rest of our day and help us to enjoy our Sabbath. In your sweet name we pray. Amen.
All right. Thank you. Bye.