“…made the iron float.” 2 Kings 6

⁶ The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.

If I jump off the top of some tall building, the sudden stop at the end of the drop could possibly loosen up a lot of things in my body.  Thankfully there are laws of nature that can give us pain at the end of a stupid jump but are also our friends as well.  Gravity holds us to the earth and keeps us from spinning helplessly out into space.

I guess every time I read this passage, I get caught up with the floating axe head.  Here is a group of preachers who gather to be around Elijah.  They are respectable prophets themselves but they are smart enough to connect to a master teacher who will be their guide and mentor.  They have a need for a larger space for their group to gather and learn. They go and build a simple place to stay.

The axe head was borrowed.  The prophet was not a bit lazy.  He was willing to care for what was borrowed and wanted to do what was right.  Now the borrowed axe head was no longer on the axe handle but now in the water.  Iron does not float!  No joke – fact.  The Book, The Bible – the Living Word of God -  said it was made of Iron!  No joke – fact.  You use things made of iron as an anchor not a floatation devise.  You can twist this story all you want but the laws of nature will not make the axe head float.

Elijah asked him to show him where it was.  He cut a stick and dropped it in the water and the next thing you know – Iron Axe Head Floats!

The God of Nature is not tied to its laws.

I remember that when the budget is low and we (in our human efforts) are seeking to find man made ways to make the weekly demand.  So far the financial axe head has floated.  God has never let me down.  He has never given me all I wanted but has always given me what I needed.   When I am in a counseling session and I see two bull headed people headed right for a divorce and it seems that the laws of nature are again going to show a head on collision – I remember that the marriage axe head floats.  God still can help to “iron heads” keep things together.  You would have thought it would have sunk to the bottom and drowned but again it floated.  God still allows the simple Word of the Living God to be preached and lives still are changed.  What seems impossible always finds a way in the hands of a God not tied to natural laws.  He can still stop a flowing river and allow people to walk across.  He can still open blind eyes and heal broken bones.  He can still cause people who are drowning in the world to float to the top, be rescued and returned to the OWNER who made them – Saved at last!

OK, Tammy – so the pills are wiping you out and you feel like you are drowning in the “feel bad days” – remember axe heads still float.  The God that governs nature is still  ABOVE it all.

Oh, to see my confidence REST in a God who still causes fish to gather on the other side of the boat, calls dead men to “come forth” from the grave, can speak to a fig tree and watch it die instantly, who can become a man and die for the sins of the world giving us hope…and yes, still calls those of us who are so swamped and drowning in the world to float.  It is funny to me that he cut a new stick and the axe head floated to it…

On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross…that “stick” is still doing supernatural things – for in the hand of God nothing is impossible.

In God’s hands – Axe heads can float! – I am depending on it!