Extraordinary!

Vacations are wonderful times to get away from the ordinary and to experience the extraordinary. Sometimes the extraordinary shows up where you may have least expected it. But really, we should expect the extraordinary wherever we are in God’s wonderful world. Let me tell you about the extraordinary unfolding right before us while we were in San Antonio. But first, let’s take a little side-trip to visit Naaman.

The account of Naaman’s cleansing from leprosy is familiar to many of us. He was a leper whose servant girl told him about Elisha. When he went to see Elisha, Naaman was told simply to dip seven times in the waters of the Jordan River. Naaman was expecting something extraordinary from the prophet; he protested, until his servant reminded him what kind of things he would have done in order to be cured of his leprosy if the prophet had but told him to. Naaman then went to the Jordan, dipped seven times, and the extraordinary happened in a simple act – he was cured of his leprosy. The extraordinary unfolded in a simple act of trust.

Our granddaughter Sidney will soon be two years old. Last year when we vacationed with family at the Gulf, we learned that she has no fear of ocean waves. She would crawl right down to them. If she got splashed, it was no problem. We saw this year that she has not lost her fearlessness towards water. Before supper, she wanted to go out and get in the sprinkler. We had brought a birthday present with us from her Aunt Betsy – an Elmo sprinkler. We got it all set up, turned it on, and she went out to it, but didn’t seem to appreciate the mist it was putting out. She went over to the side of the house and got the regular grass sprinkler. “This sprinkler. Sidney want this sprinkler.” She liked that one so much better. It would spray her in the face and she just giggled. She didn’t mind water in her face at all. Extraordinary for a child not yet two. But there is more.

We took her to the neighborhood pool. As the sky was overcast and it was still morning, we had both the kiddy pool and the adult pool all to ourselves. She soon tired of the kiddy pool and wanted to join her daddy Brett and uncle Jeremy in the adult pool. We walked through the gate with her, letting her daddy know that she was coming. He met her at the edge of the pool and helped her into the water. They all had a great time together. The water was splashing everywhere. She loved it. She had no fear. She was with her daddy.

Brett took her to the side of the pool, setting her on the apron. Moving a short distance out from the pool’s edge, he out his hands. “Jump, Sidney! Jump!” Do you know what she did? She jumped – right into her daddy’s arms! Over, and over, and over again. Uncle Jeremy wanted in on some of that fun, but Sidney would not jump out to him. She jumped to her daddy! She trusted him to catch her.
Uncle Jeremy could fly her through the water; she would ride on his back (She called him a sea dolphin.); she would let him hold her and she’d kick and paddle; but she would not jump to him.

She jumped to her daddy. She knew him; she trusted him!

An exquisite lesson seen in the actions of a child who is not quite two years old! Now, that is extraordinary! See, as we get more mature, we learn to trust less and less. We’ve been let down; we’ve been hurt; we learned that trust can be and is betrayed by those in whom we trust. But not so with small children. They have not experienced that let down. They trust those they know. The more they know them, the more they trust them.

Jesus said, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. There is something about children that is worth imitating, yea, that it is essential we imitate if we are to be heirs of heaven. Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. (Pro 3:5) Trust in the Lord forever, For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock. (Isa 26:4) Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. (2 Cor 1:9) Trust, like unto that of a small child for his or her own parent!

A child trusts his or her parent because they know they are trustworthy. It’s all they know. Extraordinary! Now, the difficult part for us is learning to trust unconditionally like a child does: unconditional trust in the ability, the promise, and the love of God. Talk about your extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary!