MAY I HELP YOU?

Psalms 121:2 “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

“May I help you?” That is a familiar greeting when we walk into a store. Anyone who has ever worked in a retail environment knows that question well. We need help most of the places we go. If we go out to eat someone may help us find a table. They take our order. Someone else even cooks the food. Do you remember the days when gas station attendants would fill ‘er up? There were times when grocery stores employed bag boys to carry your groceries out to the car.

When you think about it, we are all dependent on someone for something. We all need someone’s help. The problem occurs when others let us down. Even if something has a lifetime warranty, it is useless if the one who gave you the warranty goes out of business. People will fail us, but there is someone to whom we can turn for help that is reliable.

People and things will let us down. There will always be someone who doesn’t come through for us. I am a baseball fan. There are always some players that are called “clutch players.” They are the ones who make the perfect pitch or get the timely hit at a key spot in the game. When the game is on the line he is the one you want on the mound or in the batter’s box. Not everyone is perfect though. The best pitchers give up home runs. The best hitters strike out at key moments. Even the best “clutch player” fails from time to time. God never fails.

You see God created all the stuff we depend on. God created the Church. God created the family. God created the universe. I think it is a better idea to go to the source. Back at the turn of the 20th century there was an inventor who invented a new machine. He built several of these machines. One factory bought a machine. After a while they had a problem with it, and it quit working. Engineers from the company looked at it and tried to figure out what was wrong with it. No one could figure out what was wrong. Finally the owner of the factory called the inventor. He came out. He looked at it for a couple minutes, and then he got out a tool and tinkered on it for a couple minutes. He turned to the owner and said, “Well, your problem is solved.” The inventor handed the owner a bill for $100. Now remember this was over 100 years ago and $100 was a lot of money then. The owner exclaimed, “$100! You were only tinkered around for a few minutes.” The inventor replied, “$10 for tinkering and $90 for knowing where to tinker.”

When we need help it only stands to reason to go to the one who created the world to begin with. The inventor knew more about the machine than anyone because he built it. God knows more about what we need because he created us to begin with. God’s greatest desire is for us to have a relationship with him that is right. He wants us to depend on him. There is no other way than to trust him.