December 26, 2008
You Better Not Pout...
I wanted to get our three year-old granddaughter a pair of boots for Christmas, but getting the right size and also having it be a surprise was impossible. The first pair I purchased was too large and when Lydia was told she couldn’t keep them, she pouted. The second pair fit, but once again she couldn’t keep them because I needed to put them under the tree for her Christmas present. More distraught than ever she added tears to her pouting. Finally on Christmas Eve Lydia opened her gift and pulling the boots from the package said, “Look…I’ve got my boots. They’re mine. I’ve got my new boots.” Even on an adult level I can relate to Lydia’s disappointment and her joy. I’ve known God to give me a glimpse of a perfect gift, only to have Him deny me the gift because it’s not the right time, the right size...or He has something better in mind. It’s hard not to pout…
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Gail;
-----I thank God He knows the full interconnection of all human events, great and small. Like Lydia, even the most perceptive of us adults can not precisely guess the system of interconnections in which a disheartening event occurs. Just as dangerous to our psyches is our inability to appreciate the full interconnectivity of heartening events. The older I get the more I appreciate the mathematical concept of a variable. Once an equation has been defined, the value of its variable will determine the value of its answer (solution, for you math geeks.) The variable is a completely unknown value until the equation is defined. Only then does particular options for its value become relatable to certain outcomes. For poor Lydia, the shoe shopping experience was an undefined equation, or should I say more cynically, a misdefined equation. To her, by the appearance of the equation given, the variable of the boots being put on her feet meant the answer was boots now. For want of the hidden function, she could not properly calculate boots later.
-----Most equations happening in our lives have multiple hidden functions. We have some equations figured out completely. Last night a car made a left turn in front of me. I knew the equation and the effects the values of its variable would have: want to be safe - hit the skids, want to teach a lesson - hit the gas. But concerning those partially defined equations, I try my best to lay my head on my pillow knowing that God will either reveal the rest of the equation for me if I am to choose the value of the variable, or that He will somehow fill the variable for me if I am not to know the equation. I think that’s part of the peace He gives.
Love,
Steve Corey
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