Thursday, August 12, 2010
2 Kings 5:3 If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.
THE LITTLE MISSIONARY
Can children change the lives of others? They are so young. Can they really make an impact on the world? At age 12, Cameron Johnson paid $100 for his sister's Beanie Baby collection. He started selling and trading them on eBay. He made money. He invested the money. He made a lot more. By the time he was 15, he was running his own greeting card company with sales in excess of $15,000 per day. You'd be surprised at how many children's stories there are that are just as impressive.
Children can and do make their mark on the world and on the lives of others. But the financial impact that a young entrepreneur can make pales in comparison to the impact a young slave girl once had on a man named Naaman.
This slave girl was an Israelite, but had been taken from her home by a group of hostile raiders and moved north to Syria of Damascus. There she became the servant to the wife of an army commander. The commander's name was Naaman, and he had the dreaded disease known as leprosy. Today the disease can be treated, but in the days of Naaman it meant permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes.
It was the slave girl who said to her mistress (2 Kings 5:3): "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." The prophet Elisha was indeed a prophet of the true God. The girl was sending him to the right place.
Naaman went and while at first he rejected the counsel of the prophet, eventually he did as God told him to do, washing in the Jordan River seven times. He was cleansed of his disease. And so it turned out that a young slave girl's insistence had led directly to his healing.
But there was more to it than that. When Naaman returned to Elisha he said (2 Kings 5:15): "Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel." The little girl had been instrumental in bringing Naaman to know and trust in the true God. Let us train and encourage our children in such a way that they can be prepared and anxious to lead others to the LORD -- that others may see Christ and the forgiveness He wins for us on the cross. For by His wounds we are healed.
