My three year old daughter has grasped the concept of traffic lights—“red means stop, green means go”—and yesterday was focused on whether I was obeying them as I drove. I was, but she couldn’t see that from the back seat and kept asking about them. She eventually moved onto other things and we both had a more pleasant ride.
It strikes me that we sometimes relate to God that way. He knows where we are going and how best to get us there, including when we should stop and when we should go. But we don’t have the same view of the road He does, so we get nervous and start second guessing Him, and that makes things more stressful than they need to be. We have a much more enjoyable journey when we relax and leave the driving to Him, being content to move on His better informed timetable.
(Other images comparing our relationship with God with our relationship to our children can be found at What We Can Learn About God From Being Parents.
Images about trusting God amidst the unexpected/difficult/incomprehensible were posted November 7, and 15, 2004, and April 25, July 11b, and August 9, 2005.)
