A MATTER OF TRUST
      

                               By carol Pearson



          The  little girl, aged about five years, stood nervously watching
     Daddy fix her doll.  "You can put her head back on?"  She asked.

          "Well," said  Daddy, thoughtfully:   "We are  going to put  a new
     head on  her.  It will be  the head we saved from  the other doll that
     broke.  OK?"

          The little one  considered Daddy's words.  She  really wanted the
     doll back, exactly as she was, but knew Daddy would do his very best.

          "OK.  How will you do it, Dad?"

          He was already working  away at the doll.  He was  having to make
     the opening for the  head a little larger than it had  been and he had
     to find  a new way  to secure it.   "It was a  delicate operation," he
     said, as he went on working.

          She was agitated and continued:   "But you can do it, Dad,  can't
     you?"  She felt she couldn't do without that favorite doll.  It was so
     much a part of her.  She wanted to cry again, as she had when the doll
     had been mistreated and had broken.

          "Yes," Dad replied, encouraging his little girl and assuring  her
     it would be all right.  "We can do it."

          Eventually his daughter  was allowed to help  with a part  of the
     operation and  soon the head  was fixed again  and the doll  was lying
     flat, with her  new (slightly larger)  head, waiting  for the glue  to
     become firm and hold it in place.

          Years later that little girl could still remember that story.

          One  night, as  she felt  very sad  and pained  that things  were
     changing in  her life, her  independence appearing to have  been taken
     away because of  her health  problems, she  remembered that  incident.
     She was now a grown woman and knew and loved God, her Heavenly Father.
     He could do far more than her earthly father had ever been able to do.
     It was wonderful for  a little girl to have  a father who could do  so
     much  for her, but now she knew how very much more her Heavenly Father
     meant to her!   He had loved  her through very many  sad times in  her
     life  and  always  had a  special  word  for her.    She  brought this
     situation  to Him and told  Him she felt  just a little  like that day
     when her doll was  having that special operation.  She prayed quietly,
     "Lord, can you heal me from this hurting inside and look after me,  as
     nobody else, not even my Dad, could have done"

          He replied:  "This sadness is not that you should look inward, at
     yourself, but that you can look upwards to Me and see that I am there,
     working my purposes out, always providing all that you need.  Your Dad
     fixed  the doll's head which was  so important to you  then.  Now I am
     going to fix things for you.  What is the most important thing on your
     mind right now?" 
      
          "My Lord, I seem  to have lost someone very near and  dear, yet I
     know I haven't really, but that's the way it feels  to me.  Things are
     changing in my life  and I am becoming less able.   It's the same sort
     of  feeling I have felt  so very many  times when I  have lost someone
     very dear to me."

          "My dear child, you are grieving over your earthly life, what you
     have had and all the helps that have been there for you;  but some are
     not there any more.  They made you feel secure and able and capable in
     all that you did.   Now I want you to trust  me, as I work on  in your
     life so that  you can walk on  and trust Me in  a new way.   You don't
     know how it will work out for you as you get older  and your health is
     worse  but, as you  trust Me, I  will do everything that  is needed so
     that you,  in turn, can show others the true light of My Own Dear Son,
     Jesus Christ, in all that you say and do." 
      
          She looked up and gently said:  "That is an honour, dear Lord, to
     be taken through those difficult times, as  my body becomes old and no
     longer works properly  and things are not  easy for me, that  You will
     continue to provide  all that I need  to take me  through to enjoy  my
     life eternal, with You!"

          "I trust  you, Lord,  with all  that I  do not  have, all  that I
     cannot do  and all that I need for the  future, because Your hands are
     big  and  strong  and  Your  love to  me  is  unending,  unchangeable,
     steadfast and  sure.   You are wise  and caring  and know  exactly how
     things are with me!"

          That little  girl found  her doll  without a  head to  be a  real
     sadness  and  a  hard problem.    Now  she finds  her  ill  health and
     sometimes a lack  of help around  to be a  problem also:   But God  is
     there!  He will not fail nor let her down.  He understands how sad she
     is feeling, even when others cannot understand.  He will do all He has
     promised  to do for her and,  one day (maybe very  soon) she knows she
     will see Him face to face!  She will tell Him how glad she was that He
     was there to carry her through the difficult times and how He made her
     to be secure and able to cope, whatever came her way!

          This story is  simple and serves to  tell of one little  girl who
     learned first to trust  in "her wonderful earthly Daddy" and  later in
     her  all-knowing, very present, loving Heavenly  Father.  I know it is
     true because I was that little girl!

          Today you can trust Him too with whatever makes you feel  you are
     hurting and  sad.  Don't  look at the  problem and in  at yourself but
     look up and find  Him there, ready and willing to do far more than you
     can ever ask or think!

     Carol Pearson   Copyright May 2005.


          Safe Place Fellowship
          Phil Scovell
          Denver, Colorado - Mountain Time Zone
          Web:  WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.COM
          Web:  WWW.RedWhiteAndBlue.ORG

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