I have been working on
writing about “The Too Big Coat” Challenge, and our squad leader
Allison Johnston just beat me to it. She did a great job, so I am
borrowing from her blog instead of putting it in my own words.
* * *
A
few months ago Michael Hindes, the World Race Director, challenged us at
debrief with a story of Samuel and his mother Hannah. The story unfolds in 1 Samuel 2:18-26.
Hannah offered her son Samuel
as an offering to the Lord after He had blessed her with motherhood.
Samuel was living at the Lord’s temple in Shiloh with the priest Eli. Each year
Hannah would travel to the temple to make her annual offerings to the Lord,
and, like any mother, she would look forward to seeing her son. Each year
she would knit him a new tunic (coat) and take it to him.
It stands to reason that,
like any good mom, she would take him a coat each year that was a little big
and he would grow into it throughout the year. Its arms were probably
a little long and the width might swallow him at the beginning of the
year. I can almost see the shoulder seams coming down past his elbows and
him complaining to his mom that it was too big. She would just smile and
tell him to be quiet, and he would grow into it.
Samuel did grow into his new coat each year. He
grew to be a mighty man of God. He served Israel at a turning point
in her history and eventually anointed Saul king of Israel.
The small boy offered to God in faith became an anointed man of God.
Many of us serving on the World Race today are
wearing coats that are much too big for us. The sleeves are
definitely too long, the coat wraps around us maybe twice and the length is
down past our knees.
Many days we have stood before our Heavenly Father and
complained our coats were too big. We looked ridiculous and we don’t see
how we will ever grow into them. I think our Daddy’s response is probably
the same as Hannah’s: He smiles and tells us to be patient, and before long
it will fit just perfect. 
I know that I personally feel this way more often then
I would like to admit. I am being stretched in outrageous ways,
being asked to do things I never thought I could do. My coat is too big. On one particularly challenging day, we saw
this little boy wearing a ridiculously large coat, and I feel like it was God’s
special encouragement to me.
Examine your own coat. Is it time for you to
say yes to God and agree to wear something that maybe seem too big now, but He
is asking you to grow into it?
I said yes to a coat that was WAY too big, but look
where it has taken me! The Lord is so faithful, and I know He will be
faithful to you too!
