Way out on a limb

George Muller spent decades trusting in the Lord | Andrée Seu

Photo courtesy of The George Müller Foundation

I was given just enough George Muller to inoculate myself. I kept hearing the same recycled incident in which his orphanage has no bread or milk for the next meal, and the needed provisions turn up on his doorstep immediately after prayer. With this token praise of the miraculous we establish our credentials. But whether by a conspiracy conscious or unconscious, the rest of the Muller story is carefully kept under wraps.

Everybody knows the 19th-century Prussian founded homes for poor children in Bristol, England, but I never heard why. The care and spiritual training of orphans was only the secondary reason. The first was apologetic, in the most glorious sense: "Our goal is to show the world and the Church that even in these last evil days, God is ready to help, comfort, and answer the prayers of those who trust in him" (The Autobiography of George Muller).