It’s not going well in the world out there. It is stormy. It’s as if the seasons of hardship we have to endure as humans increase day-by-day. Daily I receive e-mails from people who simply cannot see any solution.

Many are caught in major financial crises. Many have lost their jobs. Many don’t even have food to feed their children. Some struggle with their faith and feel their prayers are useless. Relationships are broken in pieces. Some say they are going to end it all …

At times like these I long for a direct line to heaven, so that I can whisper each sentence, each word, each letter that I can give each person in his or her unique circumstances into the handset of that red telephone.

But alas.

But God isn’t deaf to his children’s calls. On the contrary, even before the crisis comes knocking on our door, He provides comfort in the form of his Word.

You see, we get to know God in his Word. We get to know his heart and hear it beat for his children. Through his Word, we see the road He travels with his people and his children. We see that He cares and forgives again and again.

So why wouldn’t God care for us, his children, today? For sure He will, because his heart hasn’t changed one iota and still beats only with love for us. And God still does it through his Word too, today: ⁹… and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge … .

My father-in-law forwarded this story to me:

More than 100 years ago Anette Marais was sitting on a log in a concentration camp brushing the dust … from her worn clothing.

Around her are the familiar faces of tired women. A few feet away is the high fence surrounding the concentration camp. She opens her Bible and starts reading. She had struggled with God in the dark hours of the night and begged Him for a message of encouragement for these women, because who knows for how long still …

Anette reads the words of Matthew 10:29, “Not one sparrow (What do they cost? Two for a penny?) can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.”

As she reads the words, a small grey sparrow lands on her shoulder.

The group of women was amazed by what they saw, and the little sparrow became a symbol of hope in the impossible circumstances of the concentration camp at Bethulie.

In the following months it was wonderful to see the sparrows of Bethulie becoming a beacon of faith and hope for these women.

On 21 May 1902 the war was over. On her way back home, Anette stopped to visit an influential woman and told her about the sparrow message. This woman told this to others and in 1923, General Jan Smuts had the sparrow appear on the country’s smallest coin (the quarter penny).

Nearly 80 years later Jak de Priester was sitting in a park in London. He had no money, he had no job, he was missing the girl of his dreams and sunshine and biltong. He opened his small silver Bible and read the “sparrow” message, once again praying for a job!

Early the next morning his phone rang, the call he was waiting for. He jumped on the first train and started a long day of interviews. Tired, but happy and with a permanent job, he got back on the train late that afternoon.

As he got in, he saw a coin lying on the floor. He picked it up, and there on a train in London, he was holding a South African 1c coin, with a sparrow on the back, in his hand. He said the world came to a standstill around him, he realised that God was there with him on the train, and that prayer was his guarantee in this broken world.

God comforts us through his Word. Read it and share it with others!

Scripture
Titus 1:5-9

Reflection
Do you need to be comforted?
Do you know of others who need to be comforted?
How can you comfort others?

Prayer
Lord, please help me to comfort others as You have comforted me in Your Word. Amen.

Amen.