Sunday, March 28, 2010

understanding

the author and narrator of the book i'm reading asked her father a question. she was about ten. the father didn't respond initially, but asked her to carry a case full of spare parts for watches he owned a watch shop as they got off a train.

she couldn't lift it. "it's too heavy."

he replied:
"some knowledge is too heavy for children. when you are older and stronger you can bear it. for now you must trust me to carry it for you."

then she said:
"and i was satisfied. more than satisfied--wonderfully at peace. there were answers to this and all my hard questions--for now i was content to leave them in my father's keeping."

at this point in time of my 20th year, these paragraphs resonated with me. i believe this is how our Father responds to some of our requests. i know in my imperfect and narrow-persepctive existence, i become impatient and want to know all things. i want to know why trials happen. why i have to wonder.

but i think if we knew answers to the questions we had about our lives, then we wouldn't learn. the knowledge is maybe too heavy for us. God wants us to learn. He wants us to experience life, and grow, and become better people. we sometimes have to trust Him to carry the knowledge of the bigger picture of our lives until we are "old enough" and "stronger" through the trials we've gone through. that's how we gain faith.

then we can be satisfied. we can be at peace. as we work at that faith, we will be content to leave our "hard questions" to our Father's keeping. He knows. He always knows, and we just need to trust in his timing. He knows when we need to hear things, and when we need to learn the hard things. He knows when we're ready.

timing is everything. patience is needed. faith is essential.

3 comments:

kaylie jean. said...

beautiful. :)

Brady,McCall said...

Dido. Sometimes when I am confused as to what the next step in my life should be I know I just need to take that leap of faith and trust that it will be just fine:) Its the doing it that is the hardest. Saying is quite easy. Darn:)

Whitney Leigh said...

wow. I REALLY needed that.

thanks 2010 Kayleigh.