Degree of Difficulty
As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!” The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.
2 Kings 6:5-6
Mark Batterson writes, “We tend to rank miracles. Almost like a judge at a gymnastics competition that ranks a routine based upon degree of difficulty, we rank our prayer requests.
“We have big requests and little requests. We have easy requests and difficult requests. But that is a false construct. The truth is…when it comes to God, there are no degrees of difficulty.”
Case in point? 2 Kings 6. The miracle of the ax head floating is arresting in several ways.
First of all, ax heads don’t float! Elisha’s apprentice knew this full well. Note the verb tense. In using the past tense, as far as the apprentice is concerned, the ax head was as good as gone.
The loss is final. The poor guy had no expectation whatsoever that the ax head would be retrieved. Maybe he was looking for a little mercy or a bit of sympathy, but he wasn’t expecting a miracle.
Iron ax heads don’t float.
Or do they?
There is only one way to find out:
Pray a ridiculous prayer.
Apparently, Elisha did. He dares to ask for the impossible. And God does it! We’re talking the reversal of the laws of physics here!
But there’s something else to be seen in this account. This wasn’t a life-or-death situation. It was an ax head. Yes, it was borrowed. And, yes, the guy lost it. But in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t all that important!
Yet God not only was able to manage the degree of difficulty challenge, He was willing to offer the love for little things challenge.
This teaches us so much about the Lord. He is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. He is great because nothing is too small for Him either.
God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. He is great because nothing is too small for Him either.
So, the next time you lose an ax head…or when you face any other sort of calamity…don’t fall prey to human thinking. Or to human judging.
Not only is the degree of difficulty nothing to our God. Neither is the degree of importance. So go ahead and pray those ridiculous prayers.
Who knows? The ax head might float!
PRAYER
Thank you, Lord, that your power is matched by Your compassion. That you care for the big challenges I face as well as the small challenges I face. Help me to dare to ask big for both!
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