| God's "Disappearing Act" |
| by David A. DePra |
| One day when my son was a toddler, he had finished the |
| milk in his bottle. It was clear he wanted more. So I |
| took the bottle away from him with the intent of refilling it. But |
| he didn't understand. The minute I took it out of his hand he |
| began to cry. And things only got worse from there. I had to |
| round the corner out of his sight to get to the refrigerator. The |
| second I was out of his sight, he cried all the more. Only when |
| I reappeared did he understand what was happening. Then |
| he calmed down and was happy. He was now glad that I |
| did what I did for him. |
| It is amazing how often the way we deal with our kids, and |
| the way they react, parallels the way God deals with US, and |
| the way WE react. Have you ever cried, or gotten mad, |
| because God took something out of your hand which |
| meant a lot to you? Have you ever assumed, in a lapse |
| of faith, that He was doing something unreasonable to you, |
| rather than doing something good for you? And then, when |
| God took your possession around the corner and out of |
| your sight, did you spiritually panic? Perhaps get fearful |
| or depressed? Sure. Probably everyone has. But then |
| were you amazed at how God suddenly appeared again, |
| with something able to feed and satisfy you all the more? |
| It is a true spiritual principle: God never takes anything |
| away from us except to replace it with something better. But |
| the trouble is, we usually limit the replacement to something |
| natural. God may replace something which is temporal with |
| something spiritual. If He does, it may not seem to satisfy us |
| very much right now. But in the final analysis, we will end up |
| praising Him for it. |
| Notice what my son really gave up; what I really took out of |
| his hand: An EMPTY bottle. It was of no use to him at all. |
| But because he was a child, he didn't know that. He had no |
| capacity to know it. All he knew was what he HAD. He had |
| no point of reference for what he didn't have. Indeed, he |
| didn't even know there were other possibilities. |
| I don't have to know the facts about what God is doing to |
| trust Him. Faith is a rest in the fact that God knows. There are |
| many things in this life which God is going to do, but never |
| explain. There are many things God may allow, but never |
| justify to us. He may disappear around the corner, perhaps |
| even for years. Perhaps for the rest of our lives regarding |
| a certain thing. But we can be sure that He knows what is |
| best for us, and that in time, we will marvel at His wisdom and |
| love in doing things exactly the way He did them. |