Once in a while Emerald comes upstairs to my room for a bit of play time, so I cleared out a bottom drawer and loaded it with toys she gets to play with only when she’s “visiting” me.

Although she loves the dozen or so items in the drawer, it isn’t long before she’s looking up at whatever I’m doing (with the hair dryer, a pen and paper, the computer), wanting to play with those instead. I could let her have her way, but I don’t, since she’d probably ruin those things.

When I tell her “no”, she gets frustrated and sometimes objects loudly. Of course she doesn’t understand, but I’m confident my reasoning is better than hers. So I try to re-interest her in “her” drawer, hoping she’ll be satisfied with toys appropriate to her age and abilities.

Maybe it’s oversimplification, but I think God hopes for something similar in his dealings with us. Though he showers daily blessings on all of us, they’re not the same for everyone. When I first set up Emerald’s drawer, I put some thought into which items I would include and chose only what I knew she’d love: books, stuffed animals, keys, costume jewelry.

The Lord knows (much better than we do) what will satisfy us. He chooses flawlessly and gives these gifts to us, then waits for a response of gratitude. But often we turn from those things and want what we can’t have, things he knows we aren’t capable of handling well. And it isn’t just material things.

We get frustrated when we can’t have certain talents or physical characteristics or opportunities. We see others who’ve been given these things and judge them to have better blessings than we do. Worse than that, we get upset if we can’t control our lives, our futures, in a way that belongs only to God. Then when we express annoyance with what he’s “put in our drawer,” we become a disappointment to him.

As Emerald plays downstairs with other toys, I watch her to see if something new or different might be a nice addition to her upstairs drawer, because it’s satisfying to see her play happily with the toys I’ve put in there. And maybe God finds the same deep satisfaction if he sees us enjoying the specific blessings he’s chosen for us. But if we’re always wanting something more or something different, we become a disappoint to him.

Although 13 month old Emerald has no understanding of disappointing me, I’m old enough to know better than to be greedy for more, or ungrateful for what I’ve already been given. And a good place to start breaking myself of such childish behavior is to thank him liberally for everything that he’s already put “into my drawer.”

“Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” (1 Corinthians 7:17)