“No” is a favorite word of two-year-olds. Sometimes parents are alarmed at what appears to be rebellion and the beginning of the road to perdition. However, child developmentalists assure us it is a healthy sign of the emergence and growth of individuality. The child is saying, “I’m a person. I have power. I can make choices.” It is the beginning of the journey to adulthood when we want our children to be ready to cope with life without our holding their hands.
So the question arises. If we are God’s children, if He wants us to grow, if we are responsible enough to roam His universe someday, is there ever an occasion for us to tell Him, “No”? I’m not talking about disobedience to a moral stance, but more in the line of wanting our preference. When Jesus visited with Abraham on the way to Sodom, Abraham engaged Him in bargaining for the salvation of the city. In the wilderness Moses protested God’s plan to destroy Israel after the golden calf incident. This seems unthinkable yet God did not seem to mind.
What if God has a plan for our lives and we want to do something else. Will He say, “Okay. I will bless you”? Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together.” Could it be that as we grow God, like any good parent, gives us more and more choices to forge our own way? I don’t make my sons’ day to day decisions. They are men now. I trust them to be wise. If they need my support it’s there with very few if any questions asked. I’m not thinking we ever want to be separated from God and be totally on our own. I’m thinking about an eternity of personal choices with our Father’s blessings.
Spring Of Life