A few years ago, I had a Back-to-School Pool Party for my Elementary kids at church. One of the boys had been swimming in the pool for a couple of minutes when I heard him say, “Oh no! My Dad is gonna KILL ME!” He got out of the pool and reached in his bathing suit pocket and pulled out his cell phone … his soaking wet, totally ruined cellphone. He explained that this was the second phone he’d had in less than a year. He had left his first phone in his pocket and it got washed in the washing machine earlier that same year. Poor guy!
So, I asked him to hand me his phone. I pulled out a towel and dried it off, shook out as much water as I could, pulled the battery out and dried it, and waved the phone in the air. Then I did something I’ve never done before … I held that phone in my hand and started praying for it to work. The little boy looked at me and said, “Are you praying for my phone?” I replied, “Yes, don’t give up on this! I believe it’s going to work!” We dried everything off the best we could and put everything back together. The moment of truth came and the little boy hit the power button and ……. NOTHING. It was dead as a doornail. I was almost sure it was going to work but it didn’t flicker, didn’t make a sound …. NOTHING. I felt sorry for the little guy. I knew it might be a long time before his parents let him have another phone again. You win some, you lose some …. right?
BUT NOW, HERE’S THE REST OF THE STORY. That next Sunday morning, I saw the little boy and his father walk into church. I asked the father, “Did you go easy on your son?” He looked at me sort of puzzled. I said, “You know, about the phone getting ruined in the pool?” The little boy then piped up, “It’s working now! When we got home my phone started working and everything is fine with it.” I gave the boy a high five and reminded him how we prayed for it to work. I was happy for the little boy … he saw the power of prayer at work … he discovered that God cares about things as seemingly insignificant as a ruined cell phone … and to top it all off …. HIS DAD DIDN’T KILL HIM. LOL!
