Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 2

Day #2: I'm thankful that God's gifts are good.

I love the illustration that Jesus gives in Matthew 7:7-11. He asks the parents in his audience to imagine that their children ask them for bread and fish. Would they give their children stones and snakes instead? Of course not! Jesus says, "If you then, who are 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!" 

We have a loving Father who delights to hear and answer our prayers with good things. He is not a harsh, uncaring parent who gives us things that won't satisfy! He knows our needs and desires to meet them. He is good! 

I don't think though, that this is a promise that we will always get everything we want from God. In the last few months, I've heard of two different families that had their infants go through emergency surgery and not survive. I'm sure those families asked God to spare their children, but God saw fit to take them. And in that he was still good. Of course, hearing their stories takes me back to when my husband and I were sitting in the hospital waiting room, so emotionally distraught, begging God to protect our two-day-old son during his emergency surgery. God was gracious and he lovingly answered our prayers with "good things." Our son's surgery went perfectly, he recovered easily, and today he is a strong healthy boy. But I wonder, if God had seen fit to take our son, would I have still been able to see that God's gifts are good? Because there are times that his gifts may not seem good at the moment. And he doesn't promise to always show us why the things that don't seem good, are good. But he does promise that his gifts are good.

So as we ask, seek, and knock (verse 7), we need childlike trust in a Father who loves us and will always give us the "good things" we need.