“Are you coming to my birthday?” little Joe asked us recently.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Joe. We live too far away.”
“Will you please come next year, then?” he asked sadly.
“We’ll see,” we answered.
Joe was asking everyone the same question. He thought his birthday was the most important event of the year. His life was totally centered on his upcoming birthday party. He even asked his dad, who was there every day, if he was coming to his party! Turning five years old is very special to a little boy or girl.
Then one day his mother told him that they would be away on vacation on his birthday. Little Joe burst into tears! This was too much of a disappointment! How could he handle this news?
His parents told him he would still have a party, but it would have to be before or after their vacation time. The next time we talked to Joe, we told him we would have a party for him when he came to visit us.
Now Joe was all happy again. Maybe his birthday was going to be fun after all. He just had to forget about the old plans and think about the new plans.
Romans 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) in the Bible says that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” Joe hasn’t had many disappointments in his young life so far, so he wasn’t very good at handling this one. God has a reason for every disappointment in our lives, even though we may not know the reason why until we get to heaven. But this much we do know, that God’s plans for us are the very best, because He loves us so very much.
ML-10/09/2005