So last Thursday I had a great opportunity to help out in my niece’s preschool class. I read to the kids, did crafts and just sat around talking with them. During circle time we went around and asked each kid to tell us one thing they wanted for Christmas (and believe me, for three year olds they certainly knew exactly what they wanted!). Then after everyone had shared we asked them, “Now what happens if Santa doesn’t bring you want you want?”…..and for a moment they all sat there quietly blown away by the very thought that there was a possibility that Santa might not bring them what they asked for.
Thinking over the past several days and the many different interactions and conversations I have had with people, I can’t help but make the connection between Santa and our view of God. How often do we come to God in prayer only asking for what we want? It’s like we’ve climbed up on the lap of Santa Clause to ask for our laundry list of wants expecting that God, like Santa, will deliver. But what happens when God doesn’t give us our wants……when on Christmas morning “Santa” hasn’t left us what we really wanted?!?!
Now I could get all spiritual here and say well if God didn’t do what we asked then it must be better so. God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, therefore we should just trust that whatever He brings about is for our best. The thing is, all of that is very true and I believe it, but the very fact that we are complaining about God not doing what we want brings up a whole new negative point about the human race and that is that we think the world is all about us! Television, songs, advertisements, everything around us leads us to believe that life is about what we want, what makes us comfortable, making ourselves look and feel good, Yet sometimes I wonder if God is asking us, just like He asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4)!
There’s a verse in Romans (12:2) that I have been meditating a lot on this past week that says “Do Not conform any longer to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. We need to be reminded….I need to be reminded….that even though everything around us says that life begins and ends with "me", the reality is before there was even time God was (john 8:58)….and HE is the reason for all of it!
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