Dreams of a Three Year Old

God’s plan will succeed not because of us, but in spite of us.  Imagine a daddy working on a project with his three year old son, building a play house together.

Daddy gives his son a toy hammer and a few pieces of wood. His son starts banging on the wood, imagining he’s driving nails.

At the same time daddy designs the play house, cuts out the pieces, and begins to nail them together.  His son comes over and starts banging on the nails and the walls of the half-completed structure.  He is “helping.”  In his little three year old mind, he’s actually building the play house.

But in reality he’s just getting in the way of his daddy.  He wants to hammer the nail daddy is trying to drive.  He wants the piece of wood daddy is cutting.  He knows better than daddy where each piece fits and tries to place it there.  He is building that play house.

And Daddy just smiles in joy as he guides his son.

It’s the same way with God and us:

God created the entire world in which we live and maintains it purely by His will.  He has carefully and intricately designed all the pieces and fit them together in perfect harmony and balance. He also graciously gave us the intellect, the curiosity, and the nature of a 3 year old boy.

Thus, like the three year old boy, we want to “help” because we think we understand how things work; we think we know how to make things work; we think we can make things work.  In our limited minds we think we understand how the parts fit together; we think we can shape this Universe way beyond our actual capacity to do so.  We might even think we’re helping God accomplish His goals by doing the right thing.  But in reality we’re just getting in His way.

But just like that daddy building the play house, our God is right there with us, building our playhouse, smiling, teaching, helping, loving, and enjoying our company.

• Global warming?  We can’t even forecast tomorrow’s weather!
• Fix the environment?  We can’t even keep our houses neat, clean and free of trash!
• Managing the economy?  We can’t even balance our own checkbooks!
• Governing the world?  We can’t even govern our personal behavior!
• Healing the sick and creating life?  Our wisest doctors are merely “practicing” medicine and not “performing” healing!

…and the list goes on and on endlessly.

Daddy is so proud of his three year old son and his childish dreams, and God is so proud of His children and their childish dreams!

All is not as it looks

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