What Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan can teach us about the God who wants us to trust Him.

Imagine being six years old, unable to see or hear, and having almost no way to understand what the people around you are trying to tell you.

That was Helen Keller's world in 1887.

Helen had lost her sight and hearing following an illness when she was very young. She was intelligent, curious, and determined, but she had no way to understand much of what was happening around her. She could communicate some of her wishes through gestures, but when other people failed to understand her, she often became terribly frustrated.

Then a young woman named Anne Sullivan arrived to become her teacher.

Anne saw something in Helen that Helen couldn't yet see in herself. She believed this little girl could learn to communicate, read books, discover wonderful ideas, and develop friendships. There was an entire world waiting for Helen to explore, if only Anne could find a way to help her understand it.

But Helen didn't know any of that.

All she knew was that a stranger had come into her life and was making demands she didn't understand. Anne was asking her to do unfamiliar things, interrupting her habits, and insisting on lessons that seemed to make no sense.

And Helen resisted.

She fought against her teacher's efforts, sometimes becoming furious when Anne wouldn't allow her to have her own way. From Helen's point of view, this woman seemed determined to make her life difficult.

But Anne knew something Helen didn't.

She wasn't trying to make Helen miserable. She was trying to give her a life more wonderful than anything she had imagined.

Then came April 5, 1887.

Anne took Helen to a water pump and placed one of her hands beneath the flowing water. With her other hand, Anne spelled the letters W-A-T-E-R into Helen's palm.

Suddenly, Helen understood.

Those movements Anne had been making with her fingers weren't meaningless demands. They represented something real. The cool water running over her hand had a name!

And if water had a name, perhaps everything else did, too.

Helen began eagerly reaching for objects, wanting Anne to teach her what they were called. Before the day was over, she had learned approximately thirty new words.

Imagine what that must have been like. An entire world that had seemed mysterious and confusing was suddenly opening before her.

But something else was changing, too.

Anne later described how Helen came to her affectionately that evening and kissed her. The little girl who had fought so fiercely against her teacher was beginning to understand that Anne was someone she could trust.

Anne hadn't suddenly become kinder or more interested in Helen's happiness. She had wanted something wonderful for her from the very beginning.

What changed was Helen's understanding of what Anne was trying to do.

And I wonder whether our relationship with God is sometimes much the same.

Perhaps you've read something in the Bible that God tells us not to do, and you've wondered why He would place such a restriction on our lives. Maybe there's something you've enjoyed doing, something you believe makes you happy, and you can't understand why God would ask you to give it up.

Sometimes His instructions may even seem unreasonable.