CHILDLIKE FAITH

“Ask, and it shall be given you…” —Matthew 7:7

A pastor’s kitten was caught up a spindly tree in his front yard. He tried to coax it down, but it wouldn’t budge. The tree was too flimsy to climb to get the kitten, but too tall to reach it. The pastor decided he would tie one end of a rope as high up the tree as he could and the other end on the bumper of his car to pull the tree down to a level he could reach the kitten. As he slowly pulled the rope, the tree bent downward. Finally, when it was at the point where he could almost reach the kitten, the rope broke and the tree sprung quickly upward catapulting the kitten through the air. The poor kitten was flung over a the neighbor’s house out of sight. He went to look for the kitten, but could not find it anywhere.

A few days later he saw one of his neighbors at the grocery store buying some cat-food. He asked her, “I didn’t know you owned a cat?” She said, “Well, we didn’t until a few days ago. My little girl has been begging me for a kitten. I told her, ‘No, there is no way we’re going to have a cat at this house.’ Then she asked, ‘If I pray that Jesus would give me a kitten, can I have it then?’ I told her, ‘OK, if Jesus sends you a kitten you may have it.‘ My daughter goes into the back yard, kneels down and prays for God to send her a kitten. Preacher, you won’t believe what happened. Right while she is praying a kitten comes flying out of the sky and lands right in front of her! How could I refuse letting her keep it when God sent it to her right out of heaven?”

Ye have not, because ye ask not! — James 4:2