Faith Like A Child – Eliezer - Good News Unlimited

Faith Like a Child – Eliezer

May 27, 2015 1914

My glasses didn’t end up like these ones!

When I was eight or nine years old I lost my glasses (spectacles). There’s a lot of things I’ve forgotten about what that happened from that time, but I still remember that day.

I remember praying to God on my knees to help me find my glasses. Even as a child, I was always distressed when I lost things, especially things that I needed. I remember immediately after praying, being compelled to go outside the unit (apartment) where we lived, into the stairwell, and there on the window ledge were my classes. It was almost as if I knew they would be there. As a child, at that moment, I had a strong sense of the presence of God. I understood that God loved me and cared about the small things of my life.

During the years I have often wondered if I would have that child-life faith again.

Last Saturday I lost my glasses. I really needed them.

I had gone for a walk of over an hour along a four-wheel drive track in the forest. I remember taking them off and putting them in my jacket. That’s the last I saw of them. They weren’t there when I returned from the walk.

We were on a Good News Unlimited board retreat, and I didn’t want to disrupt the meetings. But even though we needed to begin our programme, three people insisted in going with me to look for my glasses. And the rest stayed behind to pray.

What were the odds of finding my glasses? They were small, frameless, and silver in colour, and we had an hour of muddy/rocky track to search. And did I tell you they were expensive as well?

As we walked to the cars, I was lagging behind. Bruce Burgess, the National Director of Peacewise (facilitating the Board Retreat) walked back to to me, put his arm around my shoulder and prayed for us to find the glasses. Although I hadn’t said anything, he knew that I was quite upset. It was a prayer of simple child-like faith, and I so appreciated it. Bruce read the need of my heart, as inconsequential as it may have seemed in the bigger scheme of things.

And so we set off. Nathan Brown (Advisor to the Board) and Bruce were standing on the back of the ute, watching the track carefully from on high. I was in the passenger’s seat, and Elenne Ford (Director of GNU), was driving. All four of us were concentrating on the track.

Eventually we had exhausted the search area where we thought the glasses could possibly have fallen, and we told Elenne to speed up the ute and take us home.

After a little time, there was a shout from the back and Nathan had jumped off, and he was at the window, handing me my glasses! The arms of the glasses were bent in all directions – they had obviously been stepped on or run over – but miraculously, after the arms were bent back into shape, I was able to use them again.

When we arrived back at Elenne’s farm, Jeanne-Marie Lawson (Director of GNU) greeted us and told us that they had all been praying there as well. She asked me if I had believed that they would be found. I didn’t know what to answer. The truth is that God has intervened so powerfully in the most significant things in my life over the years that to some extent I had forgotten how much he cares about… well…. just me.

As we gave thanks for finding my glasses, I was reminded that God cares – for the big and the little things – God cares. And that the wonderful people I was with cared as well.

– Eliezer Gonzalez

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