The Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste.
I’m sure you remember back a couple of weeks to when the Chilean miners were rescued after being trapped for almost 70 days underground. The story captured the world and everyone felt like they were a part of it. I remember reading an article where one of the miners said something to the effect of,there are 34 of us down here, because God hasn’t left us. (Of course there were only 33 miners.) As we were eating dinner one night I shared that quote with my family. When the day(s) of the rescue came my 7-year-old was glued to the computer monitor watching CNN coverage of the miners coming out of the hole. (It was a Wednesday night so we were at church, she watched it in my office before classes began) She would watch until one of them “arrived” then would come in to the auditorium to give us an update of how many miners had been rescued. It was very cool to see her so involved. Later that night as I was putting her to bed she asked me if all of the miners had made it out. I told they had rescued the last one. She looked at me very seriously with crinkled eyebrows and concern in her voice she asked, “Did God make it out too?”
It was then that I realized that no matter how much teaching, training, and talking we do, sometimes it’s just hard for kids (and adults for that matter)to grasp certain things. My daughter is fully aware that God is everywhere, and even though we don’t see Him He is with each of us right now. But that concept is hard for a 7-year-old mind or an ALMOST 40-year-old mind sometimes. When she said those words the way she said them my heart melted! My daughter was worried about God. While I know we don’t need to worry about God, how many of us make Him that “real” in our daily lives? Are we “worried” enough to listen and follow Him, or do we just go about our business with an out of sight out of mind approach? I have to admit there are days where I just do my thing. Not intentionally, but automatically. I want to get to a place where I “worry” about God more in my life. I want to focus on Him more and my tasks and feelings less.As a children’s pastor I would love for all of the kids in our ministry to “worry” about God.
