Winter had arrived in Austria, and white snowflakes fell thick and fast outside the window. 

Amelie was very happy—it was the first snow of winter! She jumped up and down with joy. Her sister, Tamia, joined her, bouncing with excitement. Mother was excited too, and she jumped up and down with the two girls. 

“We just have to go outside!” Amelie exclaimed.

It didn’t matter that it was already dark. It didn’t matter that the girls were already dressed in their pajamas for bed. Amelie wanted to go outside and jump up and down in the snow. Mother and Tamia agreed—it was a marvelous idea!

Everyone quickly changed into their ski pants and warm winter coats. Mother strapped lights to the girls’ heads, then put one on her own. Headlamps were better than flashlights. Now, they could see in the dark, and their hands would be free as they played in the snow.

The two girls and Mother bounded out of the house. After Mother locked the door, the three of them began to jump in the snow. Up and down, up and down, they jumped. It was so much fun leaping through the white fluff!

Then Mother pulled out the sled. It was a beautiful dark-red sled that could fly down hills very fast. The girls and Mother climbed a hill by the house. Then, the girls sat on the sled, and Mother gave them a push.

Whee! With a scream of delight, the girls flew down the hill. But they didn’t want to wait for the sled to reach the bottom. That would be boring. So, they purposely fell off as the sled zoomed downhill. Yay! That was fun!

The girls and Mother climbed the hill again, and—whee!—down they flew. Once again, before reaching the bottom, the girls tumbled off the sled on purpose.

Mother ran beside the sled. Amelie was glad she was there. The night was dark, and the snow was falling fast and heavy. Even with her headlamp, Amelie could barely see.

Suddenly, Amelie realized something was wrong. She reached up and touched her forehead—her headlamp was gone! She had no idea when it had fallen off. She had been having so much fun that she hadn’t even noticed.

“Mother!” she cried. “My light is gone!”

But Mother wasn’t worried. She said they could look for it in the morning.

“It’s OK,” she said. “Let’s go back home. It’s getting late.”

Still, the girls wanted to look for the missing light. They revisited every place where they had fallen off the sled. No light.

“Mother,” Amelie said. “We have to pray.”

Mother thought that was a fine idea. So, she and the two girls stood under the falling snowflakes while Amelie prayed. 

“Dear God, please help us find the light,” she said.

Then they opened their eyes and immediately saw something. 

“Mother,” Tamia said, “There’s something dark lying in the snow.”

At first, no one recognized what it was. Was it the headlamp or something else?

They looked closer and saw something even more important than the light. Lying in the snow was a set of keys, including the house key Mother had used to lock the door when they went out to play. 

Mother hadn’t even realized she’d lost her keys. Amelie probably had lost her headlamp from falling in the snow on purpose, but Mother hadn’t been falling at all. How the keys had slipped away was a mystery. But Amelie knew one thing: Father would come home very late that night, and without the house key, they would have been stuck outside in the cold snow for a very long time. If she had waited even a little longer to pray, the key might have been buried beneath the thick snow, and they wouldn’t have found it.     

God had answered her prayer—just not in the way she expected. God had responded in the way they needed.

“I prayed for a light, but God answered with keys,” she said.

Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering, which will help children in Europe learn about the God who answers prayer. Mother teaches children about the importance of prayer at Bogenhofen, a Seventh-day Adventist school that received part of a previous offering. This quarter’s offering will help even more children in the Inter-European Division learn about God. Thank you for planning a generous offering.