WHEN little Helen came home from Sunday-school her grandma asked her what the lesson was about. She replied, “O, it was about a poor woman, and her little girl was sick, and she went and told Jesus, and He gave her a crumb, and she got better.”
Helen was only a little girl—only four years old—and she did not tell the story in quite the right way, but if you will take your Bibles and turn to Matth. 15:22-28, you can read it for yourselves, and then you will see that, after all, Helen had learned the deep truth taught in the lesson. That is, that the poor mother was in trouble, and she went and told Jesus, and He gave her what she wanted, for He has said, “Ask, and it shall he given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Matth. 7:7.
Does this mean that Jesus will give us everything we ask for? O, no! He loves us too much to do that, for we all ask for many things that would not be good for us, and would only do us harm. If a little girl saw the pretty red coals in the grate, and asked her father to fill her hands with them, would he do it? No, no, because he knows how much they would hurt her, and he knows, too, his little girl would never trust him again if he did give them to her.
But Jesus wants us to tell Him all our troubles, and all our joys too, and ask Him for what we want and tell Him we will trust Him to give us everything that is good for us. Let us not forget to thank Him for everything.
“FILL our hearts with thoughts of Jesus,
And of heaven where He is gone;
And let nothing ever please us.
He would grieve to look upon.”
ML-10/17/1920