Clarity

Last night I was on Facebook way past my bedtime, and I stumbled across these pictures of toddlers crying when something didn't go their way. The pictures were captioned by their parents saying what was actually happening in the situation, such as "I told him he couldn't stick his fingers in the outlet". Or "he asked me to put peanut butter on his rice, and then I put peanut butter on his rice". These are ridiculous situations, and quite honestly, these pictures had me laughing out loud. 

But then something else struck me. These situations seemed so silly to me, because they were obviously dangerous or just straight up didn't make sense for these toddlers involved. But the toddlers just wanted the situation to go their own way, and didn't care about consequences. Sometimes, I think that quite honestly they were crying because they were just unhappy for no reason. 

I really, truly, am starting to believe that a lot of our lives look this way from the perspective of Heaven. We might think that we know what choices to make for our "best" day by day, but in reality we might not. The last few weeks have been very clarifying for me, and I have come to believe that we have such a limited view of what is actually going on in our own lives. 

Let me back up a little bit. I think that in times of tragedy, in times when our whole world is completely shaken, it reveals what we truly think about God. These times clarify for us, what kind of God we believe in. Ultimately, do we believe that He is good? That He created us for a good purpose? That we DO have a future and a hope? Or are we truly just wandering around this life without purpose, on a whim?

Then once we figure this out, what we actually think about God and His character, I think it changes our perspective. Recently, my world has been shaken. I have decided that God is good. I've never been more clear of that fact in my life. What kind of God makes us so sure of His love in our weakest times, when everything else seems so unclear? A good God. That's who. (Just so we're clear, I also believe that I couldn't have come to these conclusions by myself, that the Holy Spirit is clearly at work here) So what does all this mean? 

I think this means that if we land on the conclusion that God is good, we have to Trust, and not ask too many questions. We have to believe that even the complete crap we are treading through right now will ultimately bring about His BEST for us. Yes, we will have these tantrum moments, where Heaven probably wants to post pictures of us throwing fits. But we have to remember that there is SO much more going on than we will ever be able to understand until we are sitting in the throne room at God's feet worshipping Him. There, everything will be made known, and everything will be uncovered. 

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12. God FULLY knows us, just as he knows everything that will ever span time. I have never been so fully convinced in my life that God wants us to believe that, really, it isn't His best for us to stick our fingers into the outlets, so to speak. That even if we think we can see a few steps ahead of ourselves, ultimately, he is able to see infinitely more steps ahead than we can even imagine. And He is so good. He is so good.