It was a meltdown of magnitude proportions.
We've all seen them, sometimes even been a party to one, but this one was earsplitting. I did not witness the initial explosion, but the verbal ashes and smoke drifted several aisles over to the aisle where I was shopping.
Initially concerned that someone might have been injured, I made my way purposefully to the source of the screams. I arrived just in time to observe a father gathering up his son, arms flailing and legs kicking, from the floor where he had launched himself.
"You can't have it because it's not good for you," he reasoned.
"But I waaaaaaaaaaaaant it!" the child wailed.
"I have something better for you at home," the dad patiently responded.
"But I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaant it," the tiny tyrant screamed.
"Trust me," the father responded, "I know what's best for you, and I love you."
"Well, I DON'T LOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!" the child wailed as his father carried him through the exit doors.
I chuckled at the childishness of the little fella. Until I saw a glimpse of myself in him.
How many times, I wondered, have I thrown myself down on the floor of life and spouted my own little volcanic eruption? How many times have I doubted God's love when I didn't get something that I desperately wanted? How many times have I withheld my love from God in a petulant spiritual pout when a situation didn't turn out the way I desired, or when He answered my prayers in a different way than I had asked?
How many times has He said to me, in response to my anger and disappointment,
"Trust me. I know what's best for you, and I love you."
It is hardest to trust when what we want is good -- health, healing, opportunity, abundance, restoration. We pray for good things, and yet God doesn't give us what we ask for. As songwriter Laura Story sings in her song Blessings, "We doubt Your goodness. We doubt your love."
Carol Kent, author of the book, When I Lay My Isaac Down, identifies with our tendency as frail human beings to want to turn our backs on God when life takes a wrong turn. During one of her darkest hours, she prayed, "Lord, where would I go if I turned away from you? If I didn't have You, I would have nothing. I have nowhere to turn, so while I'm pounding Your chest with my hurt, pain, and anger, please know that I am still facing you, still leaning into the warmth of your embrace, not sure I can trust You, but knowing You are all I have." She shares a similar entry from her husband's journal, "We will choose life. We will choose hope.”
Job shared a similar faith message, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (Job 13:15).
Although our circumstances may be cruel, painful, or heartbreaking, God is not. Listen to truth that triumphs over our circumstances from Romans 8:32,
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
We have no grounds on which to doubt His love and care for us. He has already given us the greatest love gift of all. Everything else is easy. The logic of scripture says it this way: If God has already given us the greatest love gift of all, then He has no reason to withhold anything else that is in our best interest.
God's love for us was settled when He allowed His beloved Son (picture your child) to be lied about, mocked, beaten, whipped, spit upon, pierced, and ultimately nailed to a bloody Roman cross.
"For God so loved . . . "
We have no grounds to doubt His love.
We have no reason to doubt His hand in our lives.
We have no reason not to trust Him to freely give us all things that are good for us.
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
Do you love Him today?
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• No one appreciates what I do. Why shouldn’t I quit?
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