Every Morning — September 14, 2026: Please Sir, Find My Axe Head
God notices the "small" losses too — even a borrowed one.
Key Scripture
2 Kings 6:5–6 (WEB)
"But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water. Then he cried, and said, 'Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.' The man of God said, 'Where did it fall?' He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float."
Devotional
Small small problem, but big big panic. That's basically this whole story.
One of the young prophets was out cutting wood with the others, minding his business, when the axe head — just the metal part — flew off the handle and dropped straight into the river. Gone. And immediately he's shouting, "Alas, my master! It was borrowed!"
I laugh every time I read this, because the man's first concern wasn't even the axe. It was the shame of losing something that wasn't his. Anyone who has ever borrowed your charger, your car, your good pot for a party, and returned it damaged — or worse, didn't return it at all — understands this man's panic completely. Some things you can afford to lose. Somebody else's property is not one of them.
But look at what Elisha does. He doesn't dismiss the problem as too small for a prophet's attention. He doesn't say, "Ah-ah, it's just an axe head, go and buy another one." He asks one simple question — "Where did it fall?" — cuts a stick, throws it in the water, and the iron floats back up to the surface.
Iron doesn't float. That's not a metaphor, that's basic physics, and Scripture is fully aware of that fact. Which is exactly the point. God isn't limited by what naturally sinks in your life.
Here's what gets me about this miracle: it's not dramatic. Nobody's nation is being delivered. No king is being confronted. It's one poor man's borrowed tool, in a river, and God cared enough to reverse the laws of nature over it.
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will" (Matthew 10:29). If God tracks sparrows and floats axe heads, then whatever "small" loss you're carrying today — the thing you feel embarrassed to even pray about because it seems too minor compared to "real" problems — is not too small for Him either.
Maybe it's not an axe head for you. Maybe it's a relationship you borrowed too much trust in and mishandled. A responsibility you were given that slipped out of your hands faster than you expected. A reputation, a job, an opportunity — something you feel you've lost that wasn't fully yours to lose in the first place, and now you're standing at the riverbank saying, "Alas, it was borrowed."
Show God where it fell. He's not too big to bend down for what looks small to everyone else.
Prayer
Lord, thank You that nothing I'm carrying is too small for Your attention. Where I've lost something I feel ashamed about — borrowed or not — help me bring it honestly to You instead of hiding by the riverbank. Make the impossible float again. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Dig Deeper
2 Kings 6:1–7
Matthew 10:29–31
Philippians 4:6–7
Psalm 37:5
Reading Plan
Today's Reading
2 Kings 6
Matthew 10
Philippians 4
Today's Thought
God bends down for the "small" things too. Nothing borrowed is beneath His notice.
From Every Morning — September 2026 by Margaret Nwakaego Usio.