We have a three-year-old grand-daughter who is a big girl. If you have any doubt, just ask her. She is rightfully proud of her many accomplishments, including going to the bathroom by herself and chewing gum.
Recently, an eight year-old boy told her she wasn’t big enough to play on a particular piece of gym equipment. She was crushed. “But I am a big girl,” her mother reported her saying over and over. The boy was probably doing her a favor, but all she knows is what “big” looks like in a three-year-old world. And from her perspective, her abilities are enough to handle anything that comes across her path.
Our grand-daughter has two wise and loving parents who protect and care for her and daily provide appropriate opportunities for growth and learning. They understand, even though she can’t, the connection between things like eating all her dinner, going to bed on time and one day being big enough to play on now out-of-reach gym equipment.
Like our grand-daughter, many of us are proud of our achievements and confident that our hard work and successes are adequate for anything that comes our way. It is only when a situation threatens to challenge us beyond our means that we realize our plans, priorities and belief system can’t sustain the weight of our crisis.
Each day our God, the wisest parent of all, gives us opportunities to know Him and to trust Him. At times His ways may seem unspectacular or His paths circuitous. At other times, He brings us calamity so far beyond our abilities that we can only throw ourselves on His grace and trust Him to bring us through.
It is especially important in these times to remember that the Almighty God, Creator and Ruler of all, is the only One who--even at the beginning--has a firm grasp on the end of things and a clear pathway all the way through (Isaiah 46:10).
Day by day and with each passing moment, Strength I find to face my trials here.
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, Gives unto each day what he deems best—
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest. Carolina Sandall Berg
Nancy Shirah
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