Last Friday, my wife and I took our grandson, J, to the St. Louis Aquarium. Since he is not yet two, we knew he would not get as much out of it as he will when he is a bit older, but we were convinced he would enjoy the day.
We planned only to stay a couple of hours because he is so young, and his attention span is understandably short. Following lunch at Union Station, we headed home. Our grandson was yawning before we were out of the parking lot. We were convinced he would be asleep within ten minutes, but he was not.
Upon arriving home, I picked J up and carried him to his baby bed. He laid down without a peep but began crying five minutes later. As his tears fell, he repeatedly called my name, “PaPa, PaPa, PaPa…”
Although I wanted to take him in my arms and assure him everything was okay, I did not. Because I love J so much, I wanted to explain that he needed to sleep and would be grumpy if he did not. I longed to reassure him Grandma and I were close and that he would be fine. I did not do it, however, because J would not have understood, and explaining it would have only kept him awake. In less than 10 minutes, he was sound asleep.
Despite my deep love for J, sometimes I disappoint him. If this is true of my grandson, it is even truer that my Heavenly Father sometimes allows things to happen to us for reasons we cannot currently understand.
The Apostle Paul made this point when he wrote, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (1 Corinthians 13:12, NLT)
At this point in his young life, J must trust his parents and grandparents. Similarly, we can trust God, too, even when we do not understand why things happen the way they do.
Many assume that since they cannot understand why God allows things that make no sense to them, he must not be a good God. This makes no more sense than my beloved grandson believing I do not love him because he is too young to understand why I do what I do. In his June 26, 2024, Daily Article, Dr. Jim Denison wrote, “…we can choose to trust God… even if— and especially when— we do not understand…” He is right. I am convinced God knows much more than I do and that he can be trusted despite how things may appear to me.
