Animated / Biography / Drama
2019 / 30 minutes
Rating: 8/10
In his day, I’d imagine George Müller (1805-1898) was accused of being irresponsible, or maybe even insane. He ran orphanages that helped thousands of children, and yet he never sent out an appeal letter or solicited donations. Instead, he went to the Lord to ask for help. And again and again the Lord delivered what Müller and his orphans needed.
One of the most extraordinary examples of God’s providence – an account that made it into this fantastic animated biography – is the morning that there was no food for the children for breakfast. So, Müller and the children prayed, and shortly thereafter a baker showed up with fresh bread for the children that, as he put it, God had put it on his heart to donate. And a milkman came knocking, wondering if the children might like his milk, since his truck had broken down nearby, and the milk would spoil anyway.
Müller’s orphanages served 18,000 children over the years, all of them helped without a request being made to any but the Lord.
Cautions
I knew a man whose multiple sclerosis had trapped him in a wheelchair. His suffering was physical, but also brought on mentally and spiritually by the brothers and sisters in his Pentecostal circles who questioned if the reason he was in his wheelchair was because he hadn’t yet prayed for healing with enough faith and trust. They thought, if you prayed the right way, then God had to do what you say. And that’s not so. Our children watching this need to understand that yes, God does provide, and in extraordinary fashion sometimes – twenty years later, this same man was able to walk away from his wheelchair, his MS in remission. But God also answers in ways that might not match with our hopes, and we will simply have to trust that He knows what is best for us, even if that means difficulties and even death.
Other cautions could be offered with regard to some of Müller’s views, but this video doesn’t really get into them. Still, he had his faults and confusions. Parents can address this, not so much by researching him and finding those flaws, but simply by directing young hearts to where their admiration most belongs. George Müller was quite a man, but he served an astonishing God!
Conclusion
I’ve seen God act in amazing ways in my own life at times, and I don’t think it a coincidence that it was at times when I stepped outside my own comfort zone and acted in obedience to meet a need that I knew was beyond my own ability. I’ve seen the same happen, all the more so, in others’ lives who have been all the more obedient to act in faith and trust. I know of how God has precisely answered prayers, sometimes providing the exact sum required and not a penny more – whether it was as small as a nickel raise, or as large as a cheque for $30,000. Müller got his milk, yes, and that’s not the first story I’ve heard of a Christian having milk arrive out of the blue on their doorstep. I’ve been told of a needed house downpayment appearing in the hands of a mysterious stranger who was never seen again. Our God is our Father indeed, and He loves us, and generously provides for us. And I do wonder what He might work through us, if we were bolder still, like a Müller, a Corrie ten Boom, or a Brother Andrew (of God’s Smuggler fame).
This, then, is a film to watch to see what God has already done with a man obediently acting in such faith. And you can watch it for free below.
