God Even Cares About a Lost Axe

Image by coconinoco via Flickr

There are several stories throughout the Bible that make one wonder, why in the world did “they” include that? The stories seem off the wall and nothing to do with redemption. One such story came up in my Bible reading this morning. In 2 Kings 6:5 amidst the recorded adventures of the prophet Elisha is the incident of the lost axe.

While Elisha’s servants are cutting down trees by the Jordan River, one accidentally drops his axe in the water and it sinks. He cries out in despair because the axe was borrowed, so Elisha makes the iron tool float to the top to be retrieved. The purpose of this story isn’t to demonstrate a magic trick or to take up space. It is an every day life snippet that shows us God is concerned with every part of our lives, even losing a borrowed tool.

Many times we neglect to pray about little issues that may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but God cares about them too.  When people are starving and suffering from disease, we may feel reluctant to pray for a sore throat or lost keys. Once when I was guilty of this, God asked me, “Do you not think I have enough power to take of your small stuff on top of healing people of cancer?”