Surprising Deliverers

[Templeton] took Wilbur’s tail in his mouth and bit it . . . The pain revived Wilbur.

The deliverers in Charlotte’s Web are not superheroes. Out of the smallness of childhood comes Fern. Out of the darkness comes Charlotte. Out of the manure comes Wilbur. Out of the dump comes Templeton, the accidental deliverer. (Templeton is only persuaded to help because the sheep lets him know he’ll starve if Wilbur dies.)

And God also uses the unlikely to accomplish victory. “God chose what is low and despised in the world” (1 Cor. 1:28). Does it seem foolish that a certain Jew born into poverty in an oppressed country turns out to be the Savior of the world? Does it seem unlikely that Jesus would chose a person who was not only a despised Samaritan, but who was also a woman, to be the first evangelist? (See John 4:29.)

Once when John Wesley was preaching in England, a mob accosted him. Honest Munchin, a prizefighter from the attacking mob, suddenly declared, “Sir, I will spend my life for you!” and proceeded to break the arm of a man trying to throw Wesley off a bridge. A surprising deliverer indeed!

Wilbur never could have concocted a plan to save his own life through a small gray spider and a rat accomplice. Neither could we have ever devised our own plan of salvation. As one disciple exclaimed, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Would we have ever imagined that God Himself would come to earth and die for us when we were still sinners or “in the manure”?

Prayer: Dear God, help me to be receptive to Your means of help, no matter how surprising. Help me be open to Your grace working in all sorts of ways and people, including letting me find spiritual inspiration in Charlotte’s Web, a book about an unlikely pig and a spider.
Radiant Action: I won’t reject help because it seems unlikely. (See 2 Kings 5:1–17; Isaiah 43:18–19; Acts 16:26;1 Peter 1:18–19.
Webs: Finding the Good in the Bad (Feb.), Humble (Feb.), Uninvited (Mar.), Small Things (Mar.), Insignificance (Mar.)