"The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' He replied, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, Come along now and sit down to eat? Won’t he rather say, Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty." -Luke 17:5-10
Dear Josie and Ben,
I was very much hoping that we could start with something a little more straightforward for you, like "Remember kids, God made you special, and he loves you very much!" And while that is definitely true (and not just because VeggieTales tells you so), this verse is a bit trickier. It's trickier, because Jesus is talking about faith, and faith can be a very tricky thing. After all, faith means believing in things that you can't see or prove. And not just little things, but big, important, things that can change your whole life and the way that you live it.
Now you would think that, if anyone had the whole faith thing down, that it would be the apostles. After all, they were Jesus' best friends! They had seen up close all the amazing things that Jesus did while he was on earth. But here they are, begging Jesus to "increase our faith!" I guess even they didn't feel like they had enough of the stuff.
But Jesus tells them that they don't need much, just "faith as small as a mustard seed," which, if you haven't seen a mustard seed lately, is preeeety tiny. So good news! You can stop worrying about whether you have "enough" faith. If you have any- if you believe in God just a tiny, seed-sized bit- you're good to go.
Now here's where it gets tricky, and this is what I'm a bit worried you might trip up on, my darlings. Jesus tells the apostles that it's not just ok that they have a tiny bit of faith, but that that bit of faith will make them powerful enough to be able to command trees to go all Ent-like and replant themselves in the water. Awesome! What a cool (but oddly specific) superpower! So understandably, some people have read this verse and taken it to mean that God will give you whatever you want if you ask. You want a new bike? Pray for it! Want that part in the school play? Pray for it! Want grandma to get better? Pray for it! And surely God will give you exactly what you asked for; after all, you just need the tiniest bit of faith to make those things happen, right?
By all means, my dears, pray all you can because God loves it when you talk to her. Listen closely for her to talk back. But please understand, she might not always give you exactly what you ask for. God is not a vending machine, and faith is not a coin that you stick in so that you can get a prize. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with you if what you prayed for didn't come to pass: it doesn't mean that God doesn't love you, and it doesn't mean that your faith is somehow wrong or incomplete. And I wish that I could tell you why God doesn't answer all of our prayers in the ways that we hope for (especially the "please make grandma better" kind of prayers), but that's a bit beyond, me, sweeties. I look forward to asking you two about that someday in the hopes that you can enlighten me.
This is not to say, though, that Jesus was wrong and that faith doesn't make things happen. Faith makes amazing things happen all the time, every day! You know why? Because faith is the invisible string that keeps you tied to God. It's more than thinking in your brain that there is a God; it's knowing in the deep parts of who you are that there is a God, and that he loves you so, so much. And knowing that can give you the strength that you need to share God's love with other people in the special ways that only each of you can. And I am so looking forward to seeing what those ways are.
In other words..."God made you special, and he loves you very much." Guess I got managed to get back around to Bob and Larry after all.
Love,
Mom
Now here's where it gets tricky, and this is what I'm a bit worried you might trip up on, my darlings. Jesus tells the apostles that it's not just ok that they have a tiny bit of faith, but that that bit of faith will make them powerful enough to be able to command trees to go all Ent-like and replant themselves in the water. Awesome! What a cool (but oddly specific) superpower! So understandably, some people have read this verse and taken it to mean that God will give you whatever you want if you ask. You want a new bike? Pray for it! Want that part in the school play? Pray for it! Want grandma to get better? Pray for it! And surely God will give you exactly what you asked for; after all, you just need the tiniest bit of faith to make those things happen, right?
By all means, my dears, pray all you can because God loves it when you talk to her. Listen closely for her to talk back. But please understand, she might not always give you exactly what you ask for. God is not a vending machine, and faith is not a coin that you stick in so that you can get a prize. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with you if what you prayed for didn't come to pass: it doesn't mean that God doesn't love you, and it doesn't mean that your faith is somehow wrong or incomplete. And I wish that I could tell you why God doesn't answer all of our prayers in the ways that we hope for (especially the "please make grandma better" kind of prayers), but that's a bit beyond, me, sweeties. I look forward to asking you two about that someday in the hopes that you can enlighten me.
This is not to say, though, that Jesus was wrong and that faith doesn't make things happen. Faith makes amazing things happen all the time, every day! You know why? Because faith is the invisible string that keeps you tied to God. It's more than thinking in your brain that there is a God; it's knowing in the deep parts of who you are that there is a God, and that he loves you so, so much. And knowing that can give you the strength that you need to share God's love with other people in the special ways that only each of you can. And I am so looking forward to seeing what those ways are.
In other words..."God made you special, and he loves you very much." Guess I got managed to get back around to Bob and Larry after all.
Love,
Mom
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