…saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

Matthew 21:2-3

When I reflect on the topic of “Forsaking All I trust Him,” I can’t help but consider the person who willingly surrendered his donkey to a group of strangers (disciples), with no question or reservation, simply because they said “The Lord has need of them.”

This donkey was not just the family pet, but a source of transportation for his owner; it was like the family pick-up truck that carried cargo from one place to another.  It could hall the family plow if needed. This was not an insignificant gesture.  But what’s even more surprising, is that he let the colt, her offspring be released to them as well. 

In other words, he released to the Lord that which had present value and that which represented the hope of the future.   Just the act of surrendering the donkey alone without the colt was very generous.  And if one understood the true impact to the family these beasts of burden represented, no one would have thought him unselfish if he kept the colt in case anything happened to the donkey, as his back-up plan. 

But the man did not do that.  This man who remains anonymous until this day gave both his present strength and future security because the Lord had need of them.  He was a man who had chosen to forsake all, because he had a confident trust that the Lord was the one who shouldered the burden of caring for him, today, tomorrow and forever.  He was a man who understood that he was only the steward of the things the Lord had entrusted to him. He understood, his life was not his own, that he lived for a higher purpose.  He was a man whose treasure was in the Lord.

If the servant of the Lord was to show up at your door today and ask you for those things that represented to you, your present strength and future security, would you hand it over without reservation?  You would, if you have become a person who has chosen to forsake all, because your present trust and future hope is in Him!

 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields–and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Mark 10:29-31