Every day we have opportunities to teach our children to see and understand everything through the amazing reality of God's providence. But how often do we actually make "use" of these opportunities? Do some incidents or situations seem too small or insignificant to warrant God's notice? Here is a delightful true story featured in the curriculum
My Purpose Will Stand: A Study for Children on the Providence of God. Consider reading it with your students or children, and think about your own experiences, looking for ways that God watched over the "details" even in ways that you could have not imagined.
BUT I WANT TO GO FISHING!
by Noël Piper
Saturday afternoon—
Twelve-year-old Barnabas’ tackle box and rod-and-reel were packed in the back of the station wagon. Bass and bream and catfish! They were all waiting for him in Grandma’s pond, 1,100 miles from home. He already had been picturing the early mornings when he’d slip out of the house and down the hill, to sit on a stump among the pines on the bank and catch a fish for dinner.
And he’d been dreaming that maybe he’d be the famous fisherman who’d catch the legendary granddaddy of big-mouth bass—the one that always gets way, the one with the mouth the size of a coffee can...the one that had broken his line last year!
But now, only halfway there, in the middle of nowhere, they were sitting by the road in a flood of radiator fluid. They weren’t going anywhere for a couple of days. What a way to begin vacation! Just sitting and waiting for a service station to open. What a waste of good fishing days!
*****
Monday afternoon—
When they started out again, Mom and Dad were praising God for His providence in this weekend—for the hospitality of a “good Samaritan” couple who took them home for the weekend and to their church on Sunday, for their host’s friend who had a new radiator for them, and for their host’s experience as an airplane mechanic, which meant he could install the radiator in the car.
And Barnabas? Their “Good Samaritan” host and his stories had reminded Barnabas of what his grandpa had been like. He even lived out in the country. He even had a pond way out behind the house. Barnabas was praising God for the catfish! The largest fish he’d ever caught in his whole life!
*****
With God, there is no “middle of nowhere”—he is everywhere. With God, there are no details too small. Yes, God was arranging bigger puzzle pieces so that the family had a place to stay and so that the car was fixed and so that they all arrived safely at Grandma’s. But He didn’t forget the little detail of a great fish for a 12-year-old.
