We celebrated Christmas with my oldest daughter and her family this last weekend. It’s exciting to go down and have a “second” Christmas with the grandbabies, watching their excitement as they see gifts they weren’t expecting as Christmas had long since been over.
I dutifully wrapped the gifts for each of them and handed them out, one by one. Andros, that sweet little boy, opened his first gift. He looked at me and said, “A shirt? I have shirts!” Everyone started giggling, but the best part of the evening was when he went to open his second gift. To an adult, the second gift was obviously too small to be an item of clothing. As he slowly unwrapped it, he looked at me and said, “It’s not a shirt, right?!”
We got such a giggle out of that! He’s only four, and while his momma is teaching him about being grateful and gracious about what’s given to him, sometimes he just doesn’t quite understand and acts like the little boy he is!
Do you ever think that we are like my grandson with God? He provides for us. In fact the Bible tells us in Philippians 4:19, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
It doesn’t mean the needs that we’ve asked for. It doesn’t even mean He meets the needs that we want! God knows our needs and supplies them. However, just like little Andros, we get something and we look at it and say, “Hmmmm…that’s not what I asked for!” When He provides for us again, we pray and say, “It’s not that one thing is it, God?”
I don’t think we do this on purpose, either! I think in sin, we assume that we know what’s best for us. We know what will make us happy or content or pleased. We think that this thing or that thing will be what we need to make everything better. In reality, God already know our needs, and He will give them to us when it’s the right time. Often times, even though it’s hard to admit, the things that He gives us we don’t even realize we need until we look back on that moment in our life and say, “Yes! I see where you were, God, and how You provided for me!”
I encourage you, friends, let’s take the time to ask God to supply our needs, and then step back and take all that He gives us with open hearts and gracious spirits. You never know if the one thing you don’t think you want is exactly the one thing you’ll need!
~Erin
P.S. His second gift was a book for us to read together!
Iron Porch 