Preparing for a mission trip to a small rural village in Mexico, our church team was told that we would have adequate supplies of bottled water in the van we took, but we must not under any circumstances offer water to the citizens who would be working with us, or we would certainly run out of water, and be mobbed whenever we drove onto the site.

On my second or third day I returned to the van for a tool and met a tiny dark eyed girl, about three years old, who looked up at me and said, “agua?” I smiled and answered “No agua!” She asked again, and I answered the same. One more request, and she walked away. There was not another person in sight at all.

As I got the tool from the van I remembered Jesus’ words: “And if anyone gives even a cup of water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you that person will certainly not lose their reward.” (Matthew 10:42) I quickly rationalized what had happened, but the scripture got louder in my mind. I knew that I had had an opportunity to “give one of His little ones a cup of water,”and I had refused. There were cups in the van and I could have easily poured water into one of them and given it to the child. Later,, I thought that obeying God and obeying people is not always the same.

I believe that I was forgiven for missing this opportunity, and I also understood that God has greater claims on us than we usually acknowledge: “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1John 4:4) I wondered how many times I had missed His Spirit in deciding what to do or not do.

Giving the little girl a cup of water would have had none of the consequences I was warned to avoid. I wasn’t going to drink the water myself, and there was no one to come rushing after her for a drink. I had put my mind on “automatic” in order to follow our instructions.

I believe that God never works on “automatic”. While He respects our commitments to earthly authorities, at the same time He looks to see if we remember Him. In every step of my spiritual growth, I think that I have “arrived” until another event shows up. Some of them are quite painful, but all of them are full of grace. “Where sin abounds, there is grace, even more abundant.” (Romans 5:20)

Love in Him,

Prue