A Father Knows Best

My wife and I have spent the past couple months discerning where God would have us. It seems that a door opens and in turn we pursue it, only to have it close. Our hopes go up and our hopes go down. The comfort we can continue to rest in is that our identity isn’t in where we live, what we do or who we know, but rather it is in Christ and what He has done. We can rest in that, and that is what matters the most.

As we have gone through these ups and downs it reminded me of how I am with my son. Our boy, Micah (10 months old) likes to bum shuffle all over the house. He doesn’t know how to crawl, or even like being on his stomach, so he does what we call a “bum shuffle”. He has two favorite places he tries to bum shuffle to. The first is the cat food. If he sees that it is on the floor he will quickly scoot to it and grab some and put it in his mouth, or at least he tries. The second is the cat litter box (maybe he wants to be potty trained early?). In both these instances we as parents know what is better for him and we know that eating cat food and jumping into a litter box are both bad things. Every time he starts scooting to one of these two things we are quick to pick him up and take him away somewhere else. Guess what his response is? He cries and gets upset!

I know that no metaphor is perfect, but how similar are we with God? We as fallible parents know that for our kids to eat cat food and play in litter is a bad thing, while our kids might think it’s a good thing. God is an infallible Father and when He decides in His sovereign good plan to close a door, it’s only to open another. He knows what is best for us, even in those times where we think we know better.

We all go through valleys in our lives. The question isn’t: how am I going to make it through? But rather: can I trust God, knowing He has a plan for me?

“God is completely sovereign. God is infinite in wisdom. God is perfect in love. God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.” – Jerry Bridges