The Bible often talks about Jesus being the Saviour. And that is so – on the cross, Jesus saved us from our sin. But it is quite interesting that here at the beginning of his letter to Timothy, Paul also calls God the Saviour: ¹Under God our Savior’s command ...

It’s true, God is our Saviour together with Jesus. Together they planned to save people from their mess. If it wasn’t for God, if he hadn’t put together this life-saving plan and had Jesus carry it out, we would’ve been in deathly trouble today.

We must keep on honouring God for being our Saviour too. We must reflect on it continuously, because then its power and meaning will become part of our lives.

But life is not that easy. Time and time again things happen that keep us from running all out. One problem after the other burdens us. We start lagging, because the burden is simply too heavy. And as a result, we cannot live in the image of a saving God. On the contrary, we no longer feel like getting up in the morning and facing life.

What now?

My father-in-law sent me this story by an anonymous author. It may bring some hope to your life again:

Someone told me how he had hired a plumber to help him replace the plumbing in an old house. At the end of a hard day (his electrical drill broke), when he got to his bakkie he saw that he had a flat tyre. After replacing the tyre, the bakkie refused to start.

The owner offered to take him home. They drove to his house without speaking. The plumber invited him to come and meet his family. As they walked to the front door, he hesitated at a small tree, softly touching the upper branches with both hands.

When the door opened, an incredible change came over him. A big smile lit up his face. He hugged his two kids warmly and then put his arms around his wife, greeting her with a kiss.

As he and the owner walked back outside later, the owner couldn’t hold onto his curiosity any longer and asked why he had stopped at the little tree as he was going in. “O” said the plumber, “that’s my problem tree. I know there will always be problems at work, but one thing is certain, and that is that those problems do not belong in my home. So, I hang them on the tree before I walk into the house after a long day’s work. And I ask God to look after them.”

“Strangely enough, when I walk past the tree in the mornings, there are far less than what I left there the previous evening!”

What a huge lesson this plumber is teaching us. Yes, we shouldn’t take our problems inside, but even more importantly – we should leave them all in Jesus’ hands.

We need hope. We must keep on hoping that Jesus will work on our problems in a supernatural way and will help us to deal with them. Jesus came through for us on the cross, therefore we can hope and know for certain that He will come through for us again. Not only here on earth with all our problems, because we can keep on hoping for our place in heaven …

Scripture

1 Tim 1:1-2

Reflection

Do others see the Saviour in you?

Where is your hope?

Prayer

Father, You are my Saviour. I honour You. Jesus, I need You so much. Without You as my hope, life is simply too dark. Amen.