When I moved to Colorado in 1980, my first job was delivering flowers to locations in Douglas County. Recipients were delighted as I handed them beautiful arrangements from loved ones — with one memorable exception.
One day I arrived at the front desk of a Castle Rock business with two dozen gorgeous, yellow roses. The woman whose name was on the card sent a hostile message to the receptionist: “Take them back!” I called my boss. What should I do? He said because the flowers and delivery are paid for you must leave them there. So I did.
I shudder to think what happened to those innocent flowers.
Likewise, when God gives a gift, it can be rejected, he can be maligned and his intentions misunderstood. Do you trust God, our Father, to be a good gift giver?
Read Matthew 7:11:
If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Have you been unhappy with an answer to prayer, thinking God placed a figurative lump of coal in your Christmas stocking instead of surprising you with the cute puppy you really wanted?
Joseph revealed this to his brothers regarding their selling him into slavery:
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20
God may not answer prayers or fulfill our dreams in the pleasant ways we envision. So cultivate this truth: when you ask and keep on asking, remember He is Good and will always give what is good. Trust his kind, reliable intentions to do us good and do good through us.
And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who will condemn?…. Romans 8:31-34
When yellow roses arrive, inconsistent with your prayers, ask him about their meaning before assuming they are trash.
by Kathleen Petersen
Note. To access scripture links that don’t appear in the email version, read the differently formatted web version in your browser.
