“When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, ‘Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.’” Matthew 8:10
Today, our daughter came home from school with a book she made. Its subject was the Roman Centurion (who she kept calling the “ancient Romer”) who asked Jesus to heal his servant.
Our daughter was immensely proud of the book.
“Do you like it?” she asked on the way home.
“Do you think momma will like it?” she continued.
When she was reminded that we were going to her grandparents for dinner, she made up her mind to bring the book.
“Do you think Granny and Grandpa will like it?” she asked.
The book consisted of five pages with pictures and short captions. Our daughter had colored the servant, the Centurion, and Jesus on each page.
“Does it look realistic?” she asked.
Frankly, I was more interested in learning what she knew about the story.
“The ancient Romer asked Jesus to heal his servant. He had faith,” she responded.
“What’s faith?” I asked.
“Faith is when you believe in Jesus even though you can’t see Him,” she said.
That wasn’t a bad definition.
“What about the Centurion?” I asked. “He could see Jesus. What was his faith?”
This one stumped her.
“The Centurion believed Jesus could heal the servant without going to the servant,” I tried to explain. “Jesus healed a man he couldn’t see…and this because the Centurion believed Jesus had that power!”
She was silent.
“Do you have faith in Jesus?” I asked.
“Sometimes at night,” she answered, “when I can’t go to sleep, I pray to Jesus. I have faith in Him, and He helps me go to sleep.”
What do you say to that?
I myself had experienced a fitful night of sleep and had asked God in the middle of the night for help in getting some rest.
All I could get out was, “That’s great, sweetheart!”
We may not be exercising Centurion-level faith, but we are believing in the same Jesus as the “ancient Romer.” And I do have faith that our daughter will place her ultimate trust in Christ for her salvation.
I’m gonna like that a lot.