“Then he said, ‘Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’ The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked; my children are all down for the night; I can’t get up to give you anything.’ But let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need. Here’s what I’m saying: Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.” (Luke 11:5-9, MSG)

A friend had dropped me off at the train station in Geneva, and I was heading for Belgium to visit my parents. I had to change trains in Lausanne, but the train was late. Quite late, in fact. I decided to call my parents and let them know where I was so that they wouldn’t worry. Unfortunately, in those days before Internet and cell phones, I would have no way to communicate my estimated time of arrival to them…

Eventually the train arrived, but it was well past 1:00 AM by the time I finally stepped off in my home town. I didn’t need to worry about how I would get home, however, for as soon as I exited the train station, I found my parents. They had been at the train station for quite some time, and they were quite tired. Nonetheless, they were excited that their son was home, and there was no way they would have gone to bed without picking me up.

I felt so loved that night.

When Peter was miraculously liberated from prison, he headed directly to the home of John Mark’s mother, where all the disciples were gathered. When he knocked, however, something strange happened: “All this time poor Peter was standing out in the street, knocking away. Finally they opened up and saw him-and went wild!” (Acts 12:16, MSG). They couldn’t believe it was actually Peter. In fact, their excitement, they temporarily forgot the poor ex-prisoner on the doorstep! Peter, too, was confronted by genuine love.

One day, one of my sons forgot his house key. When he arrived home after school and there was no one home, he found himself locked out.

What did he do?

He did what any teenager might have done: He found a hatchet in the garage and proceeded to hack his way through two locked doors!

Unfortunately, even the hatchet couldn’t break through the third door; however, once he went back out into the main garage, he found the key and let himself into the house.

My son didn’t tell us about this, however, and the two doors that received the brunt of the hatchet’s bite were doors to the basement. It wasn’t until the next day, after he had already left for school, that I discovered the fruit of his efforts. Because I didn’t know what had happened, I made the logical assumption that a burglar had tried to break into our house. When I reached for my phone to call the police, however, something stopped me. I called my wife instead, and her advice was sound: “I wouldn’t call the police until we’ve talked to the boys. What if it was one of them?” That made sense. If I called the police and it was really one of our sons, that boy would find himself not only in trouble with his parents, but in trouble with the law as well. Instead, even though I was far from comfortable leaving for work with the possibility that someone had tried to break into our house, I decided to follow my wife’s advice.

Sure enough, when we were all back home that evening, my youngest immediately confessed to the “crime”. He was a quite surprised when none of us threatened to “strangle” him and that his only punishment was to use his own money to purchase and install new doors to replace the ones he hacked through. He left feeling like he, too, had found genuine love.

I remember these two occasions with fondness. Love emanated from my mom and dad, for they would have done anything for me, and I realized that my love for my son made me want to do anything for him as well.

If we care of our sons and daughters so much, why would we doubt that our Heavenly Father would come to our rescue? After all, Jesus died so that we would have eternity with Him!

“No, my strength comes from GOD, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains. He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep. GOD’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you-Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke. GOD guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always. (Psalm 121:2-8, MSG)

Why should we worry?

Rob Chaffart