Always Available

A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his
sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail,
and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and
tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of
the sandbox. The lad dug round the rock, managing to dislodge it from
the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the
rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a
very small boy and the rock was huge.) When the boy got the rock to
the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn't roll it up
and over the little wall. Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed,
and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the
rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy
grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved -- but his only reward was to have
the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers.
Finally he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy's
father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At
the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy
and the sandbox. It was the boy's father. Gently but firmly he said,
"Son, why didn't you use all the strength that you had available?"
Defeated, the boy sobbed back, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all
the strength that I had!" "No, son," corrected the father kindly. "You
didn't use all the strength you had. You didn't ask me." With that the
father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the
sandbox. Do you have "rocks" in your life that need to be removed? Are
you discovering that you don't have what it takes to lift them? There
is One who is always available to us and willing to give us the
strength we need. When we are broken in spirit and our strength is
spent, we can turn to our Savior Jesus. "When we are weak and in
despair, Our mighty Lord is near; He gives us strength and hope,
With Him, all things we can cope."