THE DEMISE OF A PRETTY PINK DRESS
Years ago, when I was a young girl, I
heard the story of how Jesus walked on water, held out His hand to Peter, said "Come," and Peter obeyed. Somehow, I missed the part that Peter sank! In the same sermon, the Pastor read the
scripture that with God, all things are possible. Those are the two things that I heard in that
sermon so long ago.
You can do anything if you have enough faith,
even defy gravity and walk on water. Sounds easy enough! In my young and innocent mind, I just knew this
to be true, and I came up with a bright idea that would simply put that truth to
the test. After church and still dressed
in my pretty pink dress of many pleats, I bravely walked out to the canal behind
our house and just knew without a doubt I could do the same thing as Jesus did
– because after all – all things are possible with God – right?
Well, I took my leap of faith, stepped off
the canal bank and into the water – and guess what? Yep, you got it right! I got wet – very wet, and my pretty pink
dress with many pleats was now a brown muddy mess without any pleats. Oh dear, now what was I going to do to? How on earth was I going to keep my mother
from finding out that I ruined that dress? (She had bought it for me as an
Easter dress and told me to take good care of it as it was a ‘dry clean only’). I literally trembled with fear. I hid that pretty pink dress and to this day,
I have no idea or remembrance of what I did with it. Must
be lost in the sea of forgetfulness! My
mom, well, she never asked about it. Talk
about the mercy of God at work in my life and me not getting what I am sure I
deserved!
I believe God had a good
chuckle because of my foolishness. I did not drown that day and that dress was
never to be found. And -- I was spared my
mother’s wrath! It did not even enter my
mind that she just might have been grateful that I didn’t drown!
While we are sojourners in this life, we
walk by faith and not by sight.
Sometimes it is a blind faith because we do not see beyond our first
steps as we travel life’s pathway.
Sometimes it may be a leap of faith by launching out into deep waters
trusting God with the outcome. Then
there is a child like faith that is simple and uncomplicated by letting Him
love us, taking Him at His Word, and knowing His promises are true. There are other types of faith, some of which
might be a misguided faith, foolish faith, unfounded faith and/or a misplaced
faith. Without question, the faith I operated
in that day long ago was definitely one of those last four mentioned. I took the portion of the Bible that I heard and
by not hearing anything else, I acted very foolishly. My question is, do we do that today? Do we hear just what we want to hear to make
us feel good, or do we desire the whole counsel of God? Do we earnestly seek His face, study His
Word, and learn to walk in His ways – or do we just pick and choose what we
want to believe, see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear, and choose
to walk our own way?
I learned a few lessons about that event
long ago. God definitely has a sense of
humor. He keeps us from drowning in the sea of our own foolishness, ignorance, and stupidity. He forgives our sins and throws
them into the sea of forgetfulness. He
holds out His hand and lifts us up out of the sea of circumstances. He helps us up out of the miry clay, cleans
us off, and places our feet on solid ground so we can walk with Him as we learn to
walk in His ways. Let us seek His face,
study His Word, and learn His ways. Let
us walk in the Light of His Presence and trust Him in all things. The Holy
Spirit is with us and abides within us. He will guide us, teach us, comfort us
and empower us as we surrender our lives to Him. God is more than able to keep us on the right
path as we put our faith and trust in Him.
I just need to learn to do things His way, not mine. Yes indeed, I still
believe with all my heart that with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)
Contributed by Lesta of Heartsong Treasures.
If you have a comment related to child-like faith or faith in general, I would enjoy hearing from you.
Keep the faith and Happy Reading!
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