Isaiah 18:2

Paper Boats

Vessels of papyrus. Isaiah 18:2.

Who would have thought that paper boats were mentioned in the Bible? It is wonderful what you can find there if you hunt.

Do you wonder how they made them in those days whether they used brown paper or white, and if they had the same pattern as we have? Well, I'm afraid you might not have recognized these paper boats if you had seen them, for they were made, not exactly from paper, but from the papyrus reeds which grew along the side of the Nile. Some people say that the ark of bulrushes in which the baby Moses was laid was woven of these reeds. From the papyrus reed was made also a writing material which was used for books and manuscripts for centuries before paper was invented and which gave its name to paper as we know it.

Would you care to know what these vessels of papyrus were like? Well, they were long light boats with flat bottoms. They were not unlike punts. They held only one or two passengers, and they were propelled by a paddle or a punting-pole.

Now in some respects these paper boats are rather like boys and girls. There are three ways in which they resemble them.

1. First they could go where larger and heavier craft could not venture. They were used for navigation in the shallows and pools of the Nile where large heavy boats would have been stranded.

I think that is very like the boys and girls. They can often go where big people can't go, and do what big people can't do. Sometimes you sigh to be grownup and to be able to do all the nice things the grownups are allowed to do; but did you ever think of the things that you can do and they can't? I'm quite sure heaps of big people would grow sea-sick on a swing, and if you asked many of them to go down a slide they would either refuse outright or collapse in the middle of it. No grown-up can be a telegraph boy or a boy scout. No grown-up can go half-price in a subway car or a railway train. And I know of one small boy called Tommy who came to the rescue when the big people got fairly stuck.

He was spending his holidays with his grandmother at a farm, and one morning the key of the hen-house went missing. They searched high and low, the whole house was turned upside down and inside out, but not a trace of the key could be found. Perhaps Granny had a hole in her pocket. History does not relate.

It was market day, and Granny particularly wanted those eggs to take to market. What was she to do? At last a brilliant thought struck her. Why not make use of Tommy? So she called him and pointed out the hole in the door of the hen-house through which the cocks and hens went in and out. Did he think he could squeeze himself through that? Why, of course, it was just the very sort of “ploy” Tommy loved! And before you could say “Jack Robinson,” he was wriggling through the hole, and very soon he had searched all the nests and brought out the eggs.

You see, boys and girls can often be of use when the big people fail. And there are higher and better things than those we have mentioned that a child can do. For there are rough and difficult places in life that the grown-ups sometimes reach; and often it needs a child's merry laugh to cheer a sad heart, a child's gentle touch to melt a hard heart or comfort a sorrowing one. If you took all the children out of the world it would be a dull and dreary place. You have got this gift, little children, of making the world brighter. Will you try to use it?

2. But, secondly, these vessels of papyrus were very swift. They were light, and a very small effort sent them shooting along the water. And that is rather like boys and girls too, isn't it? I often think they were made for running. They are light and they are swift when they like. But sometimes boys and girls are not so swift as they might be. They are asked to go a message or to do something they don't very much like, and then how their feet drag!

Now I believe that God never gives us a faculty but He means us to use it. He has made the boys and girls swift of foot, and perhaps one bit of work He wants them to do for Him is to go messages for other people. So when you feel disinclined to go messages, just think that this is your bit of work for God.

3. These papyrus boats were very frail. They could be used on the calm waters of the Nile, but no one would have thought of risking them on the stormy waves of the Red Sea. They were safe enough for shallow waters and calm weather, but they were useless for the deep sea and raging hurricanes.

And you and I all set out in life in a little paper boat the ship of our own strength. It may carry us well enough in smooth waters and in calm weather, but when the storms of life come on, when its troubles and temptations arrive, we are tossed about and like to make shipwreck.

But then God comes, and if we will let Him He will take our little frail craft and make it into a strong vessel fit to weather any storm. He will put His strength within us and round about us, and He will guide our ship safely home to port.

Don't try to set out in life, boys and girls, in a little paper boat. Ask God to build you a strong seaworthy vessel.