In more than one workshop and book study on cognitive development, I was taught that our brains are created to seek and see patterns, or connections. Have you noticed that about yourself, Dear Reader? You meet a stranger at a meeting or social gathering, and almost immediately begin seeking connections, right? (You know, that whole “six degrees to Kevin Bacon” thing?) Personally, I believe God likes it when we seek, or are open, to making new connections with His Word.
Do you remember gumball machines? Back in the day they were at “five and dime” and grocery stores. (Yes, once upon a time kids could shop and buy small items for a nickel or dime.) They were usually by the check-out so you could pilfer mom’s leftover shopping change (waaay before plastic money).
This summer I’m inching my way through the Gospel of Matthew. I especially like the boat stories. After reading the account of Jesus rebuking the winds and sea, I immediately recalled watching a mom and young child at the gumball machine in a local Dollar Tree store.
Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm. Waves were crashing into the boat—and he was sound asleep! They roused him, pleading, “Master, save us! We’re going down!”
Jesus reprimanded them. “Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?” Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: “Silence!” The sea became smooth as glass.
The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. “What’s going on here? Wind and sea stand up and take notice at his command!”
Taken on its own, Jesus sounds harsh to His disciples. In order to more fully understand, and pause for a little inward reflection, we have to back up to Matthew 7, some of the concluding words of Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount:
“Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Anyone who seeks, finds. If only you will knock, the door will open.
As I watched and listened to the short exchange in Dollar Tree, the child asked if she would get a certain “treasure” for her coin. Mom’s initial words were filled with wisdom, “You won’t know until you turn the knob.” Wow! Isn’t the same true for our prayer lives, Dear Reader? Jesus’ admonishment in chapter seven tells us that we must take action, ask, seek, knock, in order for God to answer our prayers.
Sadly, mom’s next words made the connection to the disciples in the boat hit close to home, “You never know how these things will turn out.” Maybe mom had lost money in a gumball machine before . . . maybe a prayer had gone seemingly unanswered.
I stared at Matthew’s account, heard the mom’s sad words, and knew I was in the boat. The times of listening to pastors and teachers preach about “praying in faith” rang out in my ears and spirit. How often do I pray then tag onto the end, “If it’s your will?” Is that a disclaimer just in case my prayer isn’t answered the way I longed for it to?
Dear Reader, it’s a mercy and a blessing that the Dollar Tree story had a glad ending. After the coin dropped into place, and the gumballs churned for a few seconds, out popped the largest prize. The child, and mom, absolutely squealed with joy. Mom’s last words as they walked out of the store are a cautionary tale for me, “Sometimes things work out a lot better than you hoped; you just have to turn the knob first.”
I may have to put a picture of a gumball machine where I meet God in the mornings, as a reminder throughout the day to not only turn the knob and ask, but also that He wants to bless me in ways I cannot imagine. Let it be a reminder of some of Jesus’ final words to his apostles on the night of His betrayal:
You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.
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