For any unaware, God placed foster care and adoption on our family’s hearts long ago. We now have five children, we adopted our youngest daughter, who is a year and a half now, this past September from foster care then we have a 13 year old, 15 year old, 17 year old, and 19 year old. Yes, I’m aware of the gap!
I give all this for a little context because having a baby in the house has stirred much joy and of course, much tiredness, but (as I’m prone to do) I see spiritual parallels in her little interactions with the world and people.
She’s learning to be helpful, and she loves to help. One way is in bringing her plate and utensils to the dishwasher. She’s very self-encouraging in all things so after she does it successfully, she smiles and claps for herself. Job well done!
The interesting part comes the mornings she’s been awake when I unload the dishwasher. She gives me the strangest looks and will often try to take what I’ve put away and return it to the dishwasher. It doesn’t compute to her. I imagine her thinking, “You just had me put those things in there, why are you taking them out now!”
She lacks the understanding. The dishes were dirty and now they’re clean. They don’t stay in the dishwasher, they need to be put away. I could use hundreds or thousands of words to try to explain it to her, but she’s not going to get it. She needs time to grow. Her capacity to understand is limited.
How often do you get angry with God, or at the very least confused at Him, because you don’t understand what He’s doing at the moment? You followed scripture and His direction, but now it doesn’t seem like it’s going at all like you thought.
You don’t understand, and you think, “Well yeah! If God would just explain to me what He’s doing and how this all fits together, I’d be able to trust Him!”
There is direct correlation between trust and growth.
I realize like my daughter, there are simply times I cannot process or understand even if God were to use all the words ever written. I have to grow; I have to mature. That’s not instantaneous in our kids, and it’s not instantaneous in our spiritual walk either.
What’s the temptation when you don’t understand and God is doing things that seem confusing and counter-intuitive? You stop doing the things that help you to grow in understanding and maturity.
My daughter could misunderstand and decide, “it’s stupid for me to bring my dishes to the dishwasher because he’s just going to take them out anyway. I just won’t do it.” Then she would potentially miss out on having clean dishes to eat from.
Similarly, if I decide reading and studying scripture, learning to hear His voice, growing in my compassion for others, or so many other disciplines are not “working” and give up because I don’t understand the process and what God’s actually doing, I find myself stuck and at a great disadvantage.
Honestly, seeing this has given me so much hope because sometimes when I don’t get an explanation from God right when I think I need it, I can remember that it’s more than likely I wouldn’t understand at this point anyway!
Like my daughter, I can keep trusting my Dad, doing the things He tells me to do, and knowing that I don’t have to work it out. He will.
That’s worth celebrating.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever struggled with this in your life? Tell me I’m not alone! (Share in the comments)
What a sweet story about your little daughter, Jason! It so perfectly illustrates how we get when we don’t see or understand what God is doing in the moment. We all need to grow in spiritual maturity, trusting implicitly that our Father knows best. All will be revealed in His time.
Blessings!
I like that it’s not denial or pretending. I may be confused or question, but I don’t have to live there and trust in Him is the place of peace and comfort. If God didn’t fully explain it, it’s ok! Man, I’m trying to remember and live these things out! Thanks so much, Martha.
Leading by example… something the Lord did with his unselfish, loving life! It’s definitely something that no matter what, we still don’t get why Jesus did what He did. Or perhaps we do, but like your daughter, because we His children, we just don’t get it… until we do it a couple of times!
Ed, you’re so right! Even many of the things we think we understand, like Jesus’ love or sacrifice or whatever else–we see and know a little piece. He’s the only one with full understanding! And we can most assuredly trust Him to the very end. Thank you so much!
All the great victories we read and study in the bible,
Came with silly instructions that would confuse the human mind.
Think about the instructions He gave Joshua to conqueror Jericho
Or even Naaman dipping himself in the Jordan river. None of them
are advantages in the natural but that’s where we just need to trust.
Yep, so true! Human brains can’t comprehend it but you can’t argue the results. When we trust, we will see His victory! Thanks Andrew.