God's Little Helper

My daughter is two and she loves to help me around the house. She can be playing with her toys in the other room but the second she hears me open the dishwasher and start unloading it, she is right there to help. When I get out of the shower, she is there to hand me my towel. When I get out the broom to sweep, she gets her broom and is right there beside me. While it is really cute, it can also be very frustrating. She is often in my way, creates more of a mess or otherwise adds to the things I have to do. While her heart is in the right place, she lacks the skills to be of real help, unless I stop and take the time to teach her or to help her help me.

Last night during the closing prayer in church, God called me His little helper and the image was astonishing. You see, compared to God I'm two. I'm tiny. I'm unskilled. I'm just learning. My heart is in the right place. I have enthusiasm to help with the things of God. But I'm often running to get my tiny dustpan when the mess requires His. All the while He smiles and gets a kick out of my desire to do things that are better done with His hands.

However, God is so good. He let's me help. He takes the time to show me how to help Him in ways that while are useful, are just a tiny part of the overall work. But I'm willing and eager, and that pleases Him. He also cleans up the messes I make in my attempts to help Him. I'm certain He is less irritated with that than I get with my daughter.

My son is the opposite of my daughter. He has no desire to help me clean...or at least he didn't until she came into the family and started helping. One day he actually complained that she got to have all the fun...and we were unloading the dishwasher! I was like "have at it." He did, but the next time he wasn't so anxious to join the fun. And that is like me too. I'll ask God to let me in on the action and then after a while I realize that maybe that is a job I'd rather let Him do.

I'm sure you can draw all your own conclusions and variations for this particular analogy. Why should I have all the fun?

Yet as I speak of being God's Little helper, it is my desire to write things that bring glory to His name. I always strive to put more of Him and less of me in everything I share...or at least to finish that way. The words I write are like the drawing of a fox my son recently did for me. Compare it to a picture of a real fox and it lacks depth, color, softness, and natural beauty. It is, after all, a stick figure fox. But does it make me smile any less than if I were a skilled artist and compared it with my own rendition? No. It touches my heart, make me smile and quite frankly, it shows how much he has grown, how far he has come, from just scribbling. It also shows me his willingness to do something for me out of love.

The conclusion of the matter is this. I want to serve God, not for credit or accolades, but because I desire others to experience the same love and freedom He has given me. God doesn't need my help, but He lets me. Thing is, I need His help to help Him. By His spirit He is the hands behind mine, guiding me and allowing me to sweep up some piles for Him. He doesn't need me to do it, but it brings Him joy. And I'd miss out on the smile on His face and the warmth of His hands as He shows me how it is done. And as I find joy in my service, someone else might want in on the fun too. If all I ever do is just love Him and spend time with Him and believe Him, that is the "work" that pleases Him. And I should not underestimate the value found in that work alone.

Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." John 6:28-29