Category Archives: God’s plans for us

Exactly Right

Posted on by

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.

A drawer for EmeraldAlthough 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.

The perfect choicesAs 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)

When Nothing Fits Together

Posted on by

Festive lightsThis morning in southwest Michigan, we awoke to an ongoing snowstorm and 8 inches of snow. Before the sun was up, my next door neighbors had turned on festive mini-lights above their deck, and the combination of snow and leaves falling together around them was magical. In my 68 years, I don’t ever remember such heavy snow coming so early in November.

As I cautiously made my way to our Tuesday prayer group, I couldn’t resist stopping repeatedly to take pictures of colorful leaves weighed down with snow, an impressive oxymoron. Was it a wintery-fall or a fallish-winter?

It isn’t unusual to encounter life-circumstances that don’t go together, a plus and a minus that are completely incompatible. This is especially true when we’ve asked God to be involved, and no matter how we try, we can never predict what he’s going to do.

MoneyLet’s say a poor man asks the Lord to strengthen his dependency on him, and then God answers by giving him great wealth. The man wasn’t asking for riches and is surprised (and delighted), but if ever there is a big-league test for personal dependency on God, that’s it.

 

Or maybe a wife prays for the Lord to influence her workaholic husband not to spend so much time at the office, and God answers by putting him in a hospital bed where he has plenty of time to think about his priorities.

Or a mother agonizes over her child’s drinking and asks God to take him off that slippery slope, but God allows him to drift into alcoholism. Years later, he finds Jesus Christ through Alcoholics Anonymous, and his life is revolutionized.

It’s important to ask ourselves if we can accept God’s interesting (and sometimes agonizing) answers to our requests. So often we rail against him for allowing things to get worse. And then, months (or years) down the road, he opens our understanding to the magnitude of change he had in mind. We learn his purposes for a life are always greater in scope than anything we prayed for.

But even more significant than accepting the incongruous connections between our prayers and God’s answers is the underlying principle that we must never pray with a mindset of telling God what to do. We can’t “put in an order” and expect him to follow our instructions.

Instead, after we’ve poured out our requests, if oxymoronic things start happening we should excitedly realize, “It’s God!” After all, the biggest oxymoron of all time was when he saved the whole world by crushing his only Son.

So, after we’ve prayed and nothing seems to fit together right, we should stop to recognize God and marvel at his work. In a small way it’s like stopping to take pictures of brightly colored leaves bowed low under the weight of an untimely snow.

Wintry Fall

“While Jesus was here on earth… God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.” (Hebrews 5:7)

Precious Jewels

Posted on by

When my sister and I were little girls, Mom often sang to us at bedtime before kneeling to pray. One of her songs was:

When He cometh, when He cometh
To make up His jewels,
All His jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.

Like the stars of the morning,
His brightness adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.

BroachI loved the thought of precious jewels, having seen them (fake glass ones) on barrettes, broaches, and jewelry boxes. So one day I asked Mom what the song meant. What jewels?

“You!” she said. “The words are talking about Jesus gathering you and all the other children as precious jewels for his crown.”

It didn’t make much sense but sounded lovely. At a bare minimum it was a stepping stone of little-girl-faith. To be called “a jewel” or “a gem” meant I was precious to Jesus, high praise back then and still today.

To make the jewel idea visible, we think of jewelry given as gifts. Everybody appreciates that kind of thoughtfulness, even though most of us will never be given jeweled crowns. We have been given other things, though, bracelets, necklaces, rings.

Gift of EmeraldNate had been my gem supplier and took advantage of every opportunity to bless me with modest jeweled items. After his death, though, I didn’t expect anything more. Then came Emerald’s first birthday. After all her gifts had been opened, Birgitta handed me an emerald-colored gift bag and said, “Midge, this is for you.”

 

Birgitta's giftInside was a beautiful necklace with emerald-colored stones set on the branches of a silver tree.

Among other things, her accompanying note (written on green paper) said, “You love Emerald like she’s your own, and that means the world to me! I love you so much, and I’m so grateful for your love and support.” It was a gem-of-a-gift that caught me by surprise and made a big impact.

As I wear Birgitta’s beautiful necklace it challenges me to think about my own gift-giving. Though I can’t go out and buy jewels for everyone I know and love, God has given all of us a book full of gem-like gift ideas we can use. Here are 10 of them.

He suggests we give:

  • food to the hungry
  • good deeds to the needy
  • money to the church
  • grace for second chances
  • hours of servanthood
  • hope to those who have lost heart
  • clothes to the homeless
  • compassion to the wounded
  • encouragement to pastors
  • the gospel to those who haven’t heard

And if we work at giving these, just as Mom sang, we’ll all be gathered up as “bright gems for his crown.”

“You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” (2 Corinthians 9:7)