God Sees
On a recent visit to an antique store, I found another Little Golden Book to add to my collection. It is the 1979 edition of Lassie and Her Day in the Sun, originally published in 1958. Lassie is a Ruff Collie. On the first page, a rural mail carrier stops to deliver mail to the home of Lassie’s owners. The carrier notices Lassie resting beside the road and comments to the friend who is riding the route with him that Lassie leads a lazy life with nothing to do but lie in the sun and sleep all day.
When the carrier’s workday is over at the end of the book, he passes Lassie again. When the carrier sees Lassie resting beside the road, he comments that the collie hasn’t moved all day.
The rural mail carrier judges only by what he sees with his own eyes. Lassie’s true story is between the first and last pages. During this supposedly lazy day, she has:
- Rescued Mrs. Smith’s puppies who were about to be run over by a truck,
- Alerted Mr. Green and his son Tommy that their burning leaves have gotten out of control,
- Saved toddler Timmy who fell into a stream,
- Helped Farmer Bell drive his sheep through a gate,
- Awakened Mrs. Lawson who has dozed off while her food was cooking on the woodstove, and
- Gotten Mr. Neill’s bull to chase her in order to turn the bull’s attention away from a group of children.
Surely no one accuses you of being lazy or of having nothing to do all day. However, I imagine that on some days you feel a bit like Lassie could have felt in this little book. No one on earth knows everything that you accomplish in just one day. No one on earth knows, but God does.
Mother and Child in the Foothills of the Ozarks, c. 1930,
photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
. . . Your Father who sees what is done in secret
will reward you.
Matthew 6:18