The Axehead

For those who know my mother, you know that she is a prayer warrior.  I learned at a very young age to pray and to pray over everything.  We prayed for the big things, but we also prayed for the small things.
When money was tight, we prayed before we headed to the store to buy a pair of shoes.  We would pray that we would find the pair of shoes for the right price. 
When an object would go missing in our home, we would stop and have an impromptu prayer service in the living room.  We would pray that the Lord would lead us to the object.
When we were tired in the morning, we prayed for strength for the day.
We prayed and we prayed often.
Over the years, I have had a lot of people, even pastors, scoff at the praying over shoes.  As if it was a bad thing to bother the Lord with such small issues.  Often asking if God really cared if you found a pair of black dress shoes for $15. 
Well, I found proof that he does!  I nearly did a happy dance when I came across the story of the floating axehead in 2 Kings.  In chapter 6, there is a pause in the story of Elisha to tell this story.  Here is my paraphrase:
A group of prophets told Elisha that they thought their meeting place was too small.  They wanted to build a bigger place.  He told them to go for it and they invited him on the trip to gather the trees for building.  While they were cutting down trees, one of the men's axehead fell into the water and of course it sank.  The man cried out to God.  He was upset because the axehead was borrowed.  Elisha, working on behalf of God, asked him where is fell.   Elisha proceeded to work a miracle to retrieve the axehead.  God allowed that axehead to float! 
Now, up until this point, Elisha had been prophesying to show people that God was real and that he was in control.  Most of the time miracles like this would be preformed to prove to unbelievers that there was a God.
Not in this story.  They were all believers.  God had nothing to prove, but God heard the cry of one of his own and came to the rescue.  I mean, it was an axehead!  Yeah, the guy would have been in trouble for losing the borrowed axehead, but it wasn't the end of the world.  This was a very small thing for the Lord to worry about.
It just makes me smile to read this story.  God really does care about those small things that we pray about.  He does hear and he does answer.  He really does come to our rescue when we are searching high and low for that lost cell phone! 
Take comfort in the fact that God does hear each and every prayer that is offered up to him.  Nothing is too small for him to step in and help out.  Not even an axehead!