Reaching for What I Want

Abby is eight months old.  She's crawling and cruising.  This presents daily challenges.  She loves to explore, as all babies do.  While her toys are strewn throughout the house, all within arm's reach, they aren't good enough.  She's always reaching for the items I don't want her to have.  Like the remote.  My phone.  A glass of sweet tea or coffee.  Important paper documents.  Electrical cords. She doesn't comprehend that when I move items out of her reach, it's for her own good.  I don't want her to injure herself or the item.  As I was watching her reach for items this morning I was reminded of the many times I've reached for possessions, jobs, relationships, and God continued to move them beyond my grasp.  At the time it's frustrating.  "I almost have it," I think and then it's unattainable. 

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  Matthew 7:11 

God as our gracious Heavenly Father does not withhold good things from us.  It's that our definition of what is "good" and what He knows to be "good" differs.  He may provide us with the gift of cancer when all we wanted was our health.  He may give infertility when our desire was for a child.  He may wipe out our savings when we were preparing to retire.  In all of this God is good.  God's sovereign plan is accomplishing something beyond our comprehension.  Perhaps God is refining us or seeking to glorify His name.  It is not ours to know here on this earth. 

Am I willing to accept the desires He does not permit to be fulfilled and say "Not my will, but yours, Lord"?  Can I become so satisfied with Christ that in everything that occurs I can humbly state, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away [or withheld]; Blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 21:1