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The Barrow or the Bricks?

Did you know that when you are a child of God, nothing enters your life without first passing through your Father's hands?

Don’t you think that’s really one of the most comforting truths in Scripture? I do!

But this doesn’t mean that God causes every tragedy, every illness, every disappointment or every loss. Hey, we live in a fallen world, and painful things happen! What it does mean is that nothing catches God by surprise. Nothing comes into our lives that He has not seen. Nothing slips past His notice. Our sovereign God remains solidly on His throne.

So the question is not whether God is sovereign. The question is whether we trust Him. I mean really trust him. Not just lip service but heart commitment.

There’s a story I heard once of a little girl travelling on an aeroplane. During the flight, the aircraft hit some serious turbulence. The plane lurched and rocked violently. Passengers gripped their armrests. Some began to panic.

Yet this little girl sat quietly, just reading her book.

When the plane landed, a fellow passenger asked her, "Weren't you frightened?"

She smiled and replied,

"No. Because my daddy is the pilot."

What an incredible picture of a Christian.

That little girl wasn't trusting the plane. She was trusting the pilot.

She didn't understand the weather and she didn't understand aviation.

She simply knew and trusted her father.

Peter discovered the same lesson one dark and stormy night (sorry! Just had to bring that in).

When Jesus came walking across the water, Peter did something crazy. He climbed out of the boat and walked towards Jesus – on the water!

But the rest of the disciples stayed where they were. In the boat.

I've often wondered whether, in a sense, they were putting all their trust in the boat.

Peter sure wasn't. At least not at first. As long as his eyes remained fixed on Jesus, the impossible became possible.

But then he looked at the wind. He looked at the waves. In other words, he looked at his circumstances.

Immediately fear replaced faith, and he began to sink, but Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him.

Then came the question: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31 NKJV)

Notice what Jesus didn't ask.

He didn't ask, "Why were you so scared of the storm?"

He didn't ask, "Why were you so scared of those high waves?"

He asked Peter about his trust. Why did you doubt?

And here's something I've often overlooked.

The other disciples remained in the boat, still battling the storm. Peter, however, was in the hands of Jesus.

The storm hadn't stopped. The wind was still blowing. The waves were still crashing.

But Peter's perspective had changed completely - he discovered that the safest place wasn't in the boat.

The safest place was with Jesus.

Sometime later, Jesus pointed to a little child and said,

"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3 NKJV)

Children trust!

They don't understand every decision their father makes. They don't know what tomorrow holds.

But when they know they are loved, they trust!

That little girl on the plane wasn't calm because she understood turbulence.

She was calm because she knew her father!

Peter stepped out of the boat, not because he understood the sea, but because he knew the One who had called him. He knew his Father!

Perhaps that’s what Jesus meant.

Not that children know more than adults. Quite the opposite. Children are content to trust someone they know loves them.

And that is where the sovereignty of God becomes so wonderfully practical.

It sounds crazy I know, but because our Father is sovereign, we don't have to understand everything - we simply have to trust Him.

Let me explain. Imagine a builder standing beside a large pile of bricks and a wheel barrow.

All those bricks have to be moved.

Now he can pick them up one by one and stagger across the building site under their weight.

Or...

...he can do a better job, by trusting the barrow.

The bricks won’t just disappear.

And they don't become any lighter.

The distance doesn't become any shorter either.

The only thing that changes is who carries the weight.

Isn't that exactly what we do?

We carry the bricks of financial pressure. The bricks of illness. The bricks of family heartache. The bricks of disappointment. The bricks of uncertainty. The bricks of tomorrow.

And all the while our heavenly Father says,

"Trust Me."

The sovereignty of God doesn't mean there are no bricks. It means we were never meant to carry them by ourselves.

The little girl trusted the pilot more than the plane.

Peter was safer in the hands of Jesus than in the boat.

The child trusted the Father.

The question is...

Who do we trust the most?

And perhaps that's the real question behind every storm we face.

Not...

"How big are the waves?"

Not...

"How heavy are the bricks?"

But rather...

Who am I trusting?

The sovereignty of God is far more than a doctrine to be debated. It’s the reason we can have peace in the storm.

Our Father is on the throne.

So when life hands you a pile of bricks...

don't carry them.

Load them into the Barrow...

and trust God to carry the weight.

 

Author: Mark Deavall 14 July 2026