We have a picture with words of Scripture that hangs next to my front door, because isn’t it always God’s Word we need right in our faces before we walk out the door? But it falls down a hundred times a day as that door gets banged wide open by the kids, who haul the craziest things through it. A neighbor’s rolling desk chair? They roll the chair right across our cul-de-sac, up our brick stairs, and wrangle it through the front door.
“It’s for the movie we’re making, Mom!” they insist as the picture once again crashes to the ground. They are wearing fake mustaches, blue blazers, and talking with odd accents. (Welcome to life in our cul-de-sac.)
Hebrews 11:1 is painted on the picture that won’t stay up — “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” I read those words again standing in the wake of wild boys. My re-hanging attempts are pointless though, because ten minutes later, it’s a band of younger kids who barrel into the house, and I hear it again. That crash — faith that falls to the ground every time the slamming is too hard.
One of the boys asks about the words on the picture, and I hear my youngest son explain the sacred text to his friend, “It means that sometimes you have to close your eyes to see God, but then you have to open them and remember what He looks like because you can’t walk around with your eyes closed all the time.”
“That’s weird,” his friend replies. I laugh at my little theologian. Yes, I think. It is weird.
The Bible tell us that we are to believe in something we have not seen, trust in something we cannot touch, and listen to a voice we cannot always hear. Like the prophets of old, we try to live in this world but to point to another. We hold tight to a promise of a plan that is good despite what our eyes can see.
And at times, faith can all feel like a huge job, something we have to fight for when life just keeps slamming right into it. What if we let go? What happens then?
I pick up the picture, and some of Jesus’ words to His disciples come to mind.
If you had faith as small as a mustard seed you would say to the mountain,
“Move from here to there,” and it would move. Nothing would be impossible for you.
Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
Small faith in a big God. The size of our faith isn’t what makes the mountain move. The size of our God is. And then I remember these words we used to teach kids when I worked at camp: “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NIV). We taught the campers to yell it into the mountains, the words echoing and coming right back to us. We had hoped they would remember that God’s Word never returns void, that it always comes back full and loud and accomplishes His purposes.
Could it be that simple?
My little one is right. Sometimes you have to close your eyes to remember who God is. Sometimes the prayers come hard and slow because the slamming never seems to stop. Sometimes faith hangs crooked, leaning precariously against a wall and barely hanging on.
But the thing about that Scripture painting by my door? It has been banged around worse than a boxer in a fighting ring, but it has not been broken.
And maybe that’s what faith should look like in the middle of our actual lives, like the constant re-hanging of that fallen picture. I can’t think that I have enough faith to walk through this world on my own. Jesus is the only One who perfected having faith. Without Him, I am walking with my eyes closed and tripping down stairs I cannot see. Without God’s Word to guide me, I can’t get anywhere, and faith isn’t anything if I can’t walk out the door with it.
The picture falls again right as we are shuffling the boys off to bed. One of them asks, “Hey, Mom. Why don’t you just move it? It’s never going to work right there.” I laugh and hang the battered faith verse back up.
“Because every time it falls it reminds me that faith takes a little work to hold onto. It reminds me that our faith isn’t dependent on the circumstances that come slamming through the door but on the One who picks us up when we fall. Our faith holds on to Him.”
“Sometimes you’re so weird, Mom,” he mutters as we walk up the stairs.
Yeah, I know.
Grinning large this morning because this mum of four boys is still picking things up the things that fall, and now with a grandboy that visits, it sometimes takes me a day or two to find all the things that are out of place after he leaves!
I love your distinction about mountains moving: it’s not our faith that does the work, but a God for whom nothing is impossible. And the patience He gives to you for teaching and training that pack of boys is certainly evidence of His working in your life.
Oh, Michele! It sounds like you know exactly what my house is like! Thanks for reading and for your encouragement! Blessings on your day!
I pray for God’s Blessings for you and children. Thank You for helping me to see and know that God is bigger than my short comings and experiences.
So glad that it encouraged you! Thank you for the prayers!
Leigh,
We need to have mustard seed faith. Like the woman bleeding who knew that touching the hem of Jesus’s garment would heal her. Little David who said I will slay the giant-actually me & God. They both had faith that with God all things were possible. Life down here can get hard & messy. God wants us to have that faith that no matter the situation He is with us & helping us through that valley. This: “Our faith isn’t dependent on the circumstances that come slamming through the door but on the One who picks us up when we fall.” Yes ma’am. We must learn to trust God with everything-every aspect of our lives -easy & the hard. By that we are showing the world that our God is bigger than what you see & can handle ALL things.
Blessings 🙂
Amen! Such good truth! And yes– life down here can get a little messy! Thankful that He is with us in it!
This is so beautiful, thank you so much!
Great analogy I love it! So need to keep hanging up my faith after I fall and make mistakes! I am so fortunate that God is a forgiving God and just loves me, mistakes and all! I hope to mace the faith of a mustard seed all te time!!!
#to gain the faith of a mustard seed!
Yes and Amen! I too am thankful that God loves me despite my mistakes!
Thank you Leigh for sharing this powerful reminder of our sometimes small faith but BIG GOD. Your natural, fun description of a day in the life of this faith picture made me smile – I could picture it all so well. What a reminder of faith in action – through all the episodes of hitting the deck it’s never broken! Also think of the exercise you’re getting with each bend down, pick up and rehang. May God continue to bless you as you honour Him.
“Sometimes you have to close your eyes to remember who God is. Sometimes the prayers come hard and slow because the slamming never seems to stop.”
Grateful for this validation and encouragement today, Leigh. Thank you!
Yeah have faith like a mustard seed
And though the size of the mustard seed is small, when it grows-it grows tall and other birds will have their nests and people find rest under it.
That means, having ua faith as a mustard seed and by watering it(by reading word) will put you on a higher ground and i the place where God has called you to be.
A little trick I learned somewhere along the way, put some sticky tack on the corners of the frame. I helps it stay straight on the nail!
Or don’t and keep the faith. 🙂