“Mum!” Bobby called out, “Mum, come quick!”
Mum could tell that something was wrong by Bobby’s voice, and she hurried out to the yard where he was. He had been wanting to get his trike past the lawn mower, and was trying to lift it out of his way, when it fell on his foot. Now he was stuck, and couldn’t move. Mum managed to lift the mower off his foot and he stood up gingerly rubbing where it was sore. Nothing was bleeding so he hobbled around for a bit and then came right.
The next day, he was playing out in the yard with one of his toy tractors. He was trying to get it under a bridge that he had built with some loose bricks, but it kept falling down and the tractor couldn’t move. “Now if there was only someone else here to hold this up,” he thought to himself, “I could get it underneath alright. Mum!” he yelled out, “Can you come and help me?”
Mum looked out the kitchen window and saw what he was doing. She was busy with her baking and couldn’t leave it right then.
“Mum!” Bobby yelled again, “Come quickly!”
But Mum didn’t come at all. She knew that what Bobby was doing wasn’t really important and that it could wait a while.
Just then baby Joel came toddling out dragging his cuddly blanket behind him. He went over to the coffee table where Mum had her sewing gear, and stretched for the sharp scissors and pin-cushion . Mum saw what he was doing, and ran over to stop him reaching them, and said sternly, “No! not for Joel!” She knew that he would hurt himself with them if he got them.
Bobby came in from outside looking quite aggrieved, and said grumpily, “You didn’t come when I called you!”
“No,” said Mum, “I was busy, and you didn’t really need me at all. What you were doing wasn’t important!”
Sally came in from her after school Kid’s Club just then, and said, “Does praying always work, Mum? Our leader was talking about praying this afternoon.”
“Well, it’s like this,” said Mum as she got some cold drink out of the frig for them all. “We can’t expect God to jump every time we pray to Him and do what we ask. Yes, there are times when God does act quickly and give us what we have asked for and we think that’s good, God has answered my prayer. Just as I ran out into the yard yesterday to help Bobby lift the mower off himself. But then there are other times when we pray and nothing seems to happen and then we think that God hasn’t answered our prayer. He knows that what we have asked for isn’t really important and we can work it out for ourselves like Bobby with his tractor and broken bridge.”
“It sure would have been good if you could have come though,” Bobby said.
“Maybe,” said Mum, “But you managed yourself in the end didn’t you! Then there is the third sort of answer, the one that is a straight out ‘No!’ like I said to Joel when he wanted the scissors to play with. He didn’t know that they could hurt him, he thought he could handle it himself. That’s like when God DOES say NO to our prayers….He knows what we have asked for is not good for us to have and could land us in a lot of trouble and hurt.”
Sally was silent for a minute thinking this all over.
“I guess God DOES answer each of those sorts of prayers,” she said thoughtfully, “The first one was a ‘yes’, and the last one was a ‘no’…what was the middle one Mum?”
“I guess you could say it was a ‘wait a while’ answer, or a ‘you can do it yourself’ answer,” Mum said, “We can’t order God around, not even with begging or pleading. We have to be happy with whatever answer He gives us and remember that He always knows what is best for us!
Now off you go and do your chores Sally, and tidy up your mess outside Bobby ! ”