A Little Girl With No Name (October 2020)

How many unnamed people have you come across?  Unnamed children often appear in news bulletins nowadays; many of them are facing a very difficult time. The little girl I want us to look at is found in the Old Testament; she had faced a difficult time and she had been taken from her home by an invading army. We don’t know if she had seen family members killed as often happens, but perhaps there was something about her that caused the army commander to take her home as a slave for his wife.

We know a little about the army commander. He was Naaman, and we also know that he was afflicted by a dreaded skin condition, although it didn’t seem to restrict his activity greatly, it may have been more about his looks, than his need to isolate.

This little girl was concerned for him. Do you find that hard to understand? Maybe she could see how it affected her mistress, and did not like her being upset. She too knew a lot about being upset, but she also knew that there was someone who could help. She trusted in the God she had grown up with and spoke of his prophet, in enemy territory.

Naaman was only too willing to snatch at this chance. He went to his king to get permission to go into enemy territory to the king there. This king was so scared by this visit, but the prophet heard of it and said he would deal with Naaman. I think that Naaman was happy to go to the prophet, but expected more than he got. This was a message from the prophet given by a servant to wash in the River Jordan. This was no great river like the rivers back home. They would surely be better His servants, however, managed to persuade him to do this simple thing, and he was cured.

We know nothing of the welcome home he got, or what happened to the little girl. If you want to read the full story it can be found in 2 Kings 5 vs 1-27. When Jesus referred to the story, His hearers were furious and tried to kill Him.

The verse that comes to my mind is Proverbs 25 v 11. ‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.’ May our words always be fitly spoken. They may not have as much effect as that little girl’s words, and we may never know what effect they have, but may they always be to build up, and not knock down.

Margaret H