So, by now, you’ve probably heard of the 6-year-old girl, Brooke Neitzel. She is the young lady who tried out her family’s new voice-activated system (“Alexa”) soon after Christmas. She had seen the commercials. It seemed easy. Ask Alexa, and Alexa does.
So Brooke had a conversation with Alexa. She told Alexa how much she loves dollhouses, and would Alexa please order her one…and some cookies. And guess what? A dollhouse and cookies showed up at the door. Magic!
Her parents were confused, to say the least. So they went back and looked at the transcript on their computer. Sure enough, young Brooke had asked Alexa for a dollhouse and cookies. And when Alexa told Brooke she would be happy to comply, Brooke said, “I love you so much.”
So Brooke’s parents put new controls on Alexa to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. They also spoke about the value of things, and donated the dollhouse to a charity. But Brooke got to keep the cookies.
The story is cute. It is also a good reminder to keep parental controls on the Internet and automated home systems. We all know that the story could have ended very differently. After all, the Internet is a dangerous place for kids without parental guidance.
Nevertheless, in the innocence of a child speaking to Alexa, I see a bit of the way God wants us to approach Him. No, God isn’t, as some prosperity preachers want you to believe, interested in giving everyone dollhouses and cookies. But He is the good gift giver (Matthew 7:11) who gives perfect gifts from above (James 1:17).
1 John 5:14-15 reminds us, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”
So consider this: Do we approach God with confidence? And when we see how blessed we are, do we remember to thank God, and tell Him we love Him? Surely, a 6 year-old teaches us a good lesson.
