Hello friends, welcome to In Bolden. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Welcome to the new series, New Beginnings. I read this great comment by a young woman that I follow on Instagram.
And it goes, 2022 is not going to be your year. It's God's year. In fact, every year has been and will be his. Once you believe that your life and your time all belong to him, every year will be a victory.
He holds the victory and the whole world in his hands every year, every day, live for him. I hope that's what you get out of this series. Enjoy. This is a short story about a little girl, a girl without a name, a Jewish slave girl, taken captive by the Syrians thousands of years ago.
But first, let me tell you about another little girl, one who few have heard of yet recently saved so many. In 2004, 10-year-old Tilly Smith was vacationing on a beach in Phuket, Thailand. At some point during the beautiful sunny day, the sea began bubbling, quote, like on the top of the beer. As others watched out of curiosity, little Tilly remembered a recent lesson on tsunamis in her geography class.
An early warning sign that the water would froth and suddenly recede. Tilly, she pleaded with her family to escape the beach. Her father took her warning seriously and went back to the hotel to bring it to the attention of the staff. Her mom, however, she didn't believe her.
But out of fright and frustration, Tilly announced, right, mom, I'm going, I'm definitely going. There's definitely going to be a tsunami. Tilly's father, impressed by his daughter's conviction, alerted an on-duty security guard and the authorities quickly evacuated the beach. The Smith family and all the beachgoers sought refuge at the hotel, just minutes before the tsunami hit.
Throughout that day, tsunamis in the Southeast Asia area killed nearly 230,000 people. But Tilly's persistence saved the lives of every person on the beach that day. Second King, five, three, says, she said to her mistress, if only my master would see the prophet who was in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy. That was the pleading voice of that little Jewish girl.
Her new beginning began in a strange land as a slave, taken captive by King Aram, living in the house of Naaman, commander of the army. Naaman, although an impressive warrior and highly regarded by the king, he was stricken with leprosy. And that little girl, far from home, she was urged to tell her mistress about the healing powers of the prophet, Elisha, the man of God. Without fear, without thought of not being believed because of her youthfulness or gender or race or faith, this no-name child saved a man both physically and spiritually.
She doesn't appear to harbor any malice towards her captors. Instead, she shows the love and mercy of God. As for Naaman, he was urged to take this little child's advice and travel to a far-off land and search for a cure. And with the prophet Elisha's help, Naaman became a follower of the one true God.
He too took this gift and quietly weaved it into his surroundings, eventually converting the royal household. Luke 4, 27, sees the story mentioned by Jesus. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha, the prophet, yet not one of them was cleanse, only Naaman, the Syrian. When Jesus spoke these words in the Nazareth synagogue, he was thrown out.
How dare he speak of saving Gentiles? How dare he encourage the saving of enemies? Once who had taken the Jews as slaves? Yes, how dare he?
How dare Tilly thinks she knew something that could save so many? How dare this Jewish slave girl share her God's love for everyone? I can only imagine how grateful Naaman must have been towards this little slave girl. I can only imagine because she's never mentioned again.
Her new beginning as her master's first guide and his steps toward salvation had to have brought that per household so much joy. Just like Tilly will always know how much of a difference one person can make. How dare we all direct just one person towards the loving grace of our Savior? Who are we to give the others this world the gift of a new beginning?
To have our own beginning as a servant of Christ? How dare I, a person of lowly origins, share in the hope and salvation of someone? How dare you? I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Abolden Podcast.
Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode and check out my blog at embolden.net.