Spoiled Milk

Yesterday when I picked up my one-year old foster son from daycare. He saw his cup of milk from the morning sitting on the seat and he wanted it. He reached for it and when I didn't give it he started crying. He surely thought I was witholding something good from him -- he loves milk and milk is good. I told him it was spoiled milk and would make him sick. And he would thank me later. He did not understand what I was saying and continued crying, complete with tears. It seems sort of heartless when you look from his point of view. From mine, I'm protecting him, as is my job as his mom.

After this interaction I immediately recognized a similarity. I had just been crying to God that he hadn't answered some prayers that I had been praying. Prayers for good things and yet, He hadn't answered. I felt a pang of conviction. As if He were saying, "Katie, those things are good at the right place and time, but for you, now, they are spoiled milk." And most of the time I cry and wonder why and honestly, sometimes it is really hard to get past that.

Isaiah 55:8-9

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts."

We know that God doesn't always show us the why. We might never see why He didn't answer good and important prayers, but we know that ultimately His goal for us is Christlikeness. Most, if not all, of the time, we are refined more deeply through struggle. Through having to trust Him with no other option. Because we know that despite our feelings of frustration, we cannot 'figure Him out'. He is beyond our comprehension. What we do know is that He is good. That He knows how to give good gifts to us. He has and He will continue to bless us so much more than we deserve.