STONES AND SNAKES


Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! 
(Matthew 7: 9-11 – NAS)

 
Jesus follows His straightforward declaration of “Ask, seek, and knock” with this reminder that the person we ask things of is God Almighty, our heavenly Father. He uses the analogy of human parenting to convey how attentive God is to our needs and requests.

He is, of course, speaking of normal parents, the vast majority of parents, for we know that there are examples of parents who do indeed give their children “stones and snakes” when the offspring have asked for bread and fish. That is the tragedy of being human, especially when that person has moved far away from God. But most people, even those who otherwise treat their fellow humans badly, try to do what is best for their children.

So if otherwise dubious specimens of humanity can “do right” by their children, why do we doubt that God our Father would not do right by us?

And yet, when we go through times of difficulty - when we do not feel that we are getting answers to our asking, finding what we are seeking, or having doors opened when we knock – we often question whether God is paying attention or even cares about the challenges we face.

Jesus knows how impatient we get with our circumstances, particularly when they are difficult to deal with. He knows that we beg and plead with God that He intervene and improve our situation. So many of the Psalms, in fact, do just that, begging for God to step in and relieve the psalmist from distress.

He also wants us to remember that we, as His followers, are heirs to the kingdom of heaven. We are not forgotten orphans who have no expectation of receiving anything from anybody. We are heirs to the household, beloved children of a living Father, who knows everything in our lives. Remember: this is the Father who knows our secret desires and prayers, who provides for the birds of the air and lilies of the field and for His children who are dear to His heart. Do we really have cause to claim that He is inattentive or is refusing to give us what we need?

Yet, the fact remains that many believers go through distressing times of trial. Their lives get cut down to the bone, with many things that seem necessary and important stripped away. At such times, the faithful cling to a verse like Psalm 37: 25 in desperation, like a life line. The verse says, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” The believer who goes through such trials really does cling to the hope that surely the Lord will not let them be cast out into the streets or go hungry. And yet, when times of trial stretch on and on, those of us facing such difficult experiences end up wondering if God really is paying attention.

Jesus reassures us that God does know our needs and will indeed fulfill them. The Lord will not give us stones when we need bread, and He will not give us snakes when we need fish.

Then why do we not get those things we ask for?

There have been many times when I’ve been made to realize that what I think I need and what God thinks I need are two different things. It surprised me at times the things that God is willing to let go by unattended. What could be more important than meeting my financial obligations, for instance? These are debts I accrued in good faith, with every intention of paying them promptly. But when circumstances occur that make that impossible, why does God not step in to address them? Could it be that there might be something more important to Him than whether or not I pay off my debt immediately?

What is more important to God then? What is He seeing in my life that needs addressing more than my worldly concerns?

A time of trial involves a stripping away of things we have let get between us and our heavenly Father. How many layers of things have we put between us and our intimate relationship with God? Do we let our financial obligations distract us from that relationship? What about our every-day jobs? Do they become more important to us than spending time with God? Even our family can become a buffer zone between us and the Lord, as we put them first in our lives – perhaps even making little idols of them, that we worship more in our hearts than we do the Creator of the Universe.

What we think is necessary is not always what God thinks is necessary.

In that case, we need to examine the experiences He does send our way, to discover what it is in them that He thinks we need. Often it is as simple as our need to let go of trying to control everything. Can we not trust the Creator of the Universe lay out the path for us? Is He really likely to steer us badly? If we feel that we are not receiving what we need, is it really because we believe that God is not providing for us? Do we take the time to stop and examine what we are receiving in each circumstance?

When circumstances are rough on us, we really don’t want to sit down and “count it all joy.” When we’re wondering where the next amount of grocery money will come from, we’re not really keen to review the consequences of our tighter budget. But perhaps God is working on something through those circumstances. Perhaps by taking away spending money for frivolous things, the Lord is teaching us to break old eating habits which are not healthy for us. Perhaps in peeling away our entertainment indulgences, He is showing us how much we let distract us from the work He has planned for us.

We are not demeaned slaves of God. We are not forgotten beggars on the road to the kingdom. As followers of Jesus, we are heirs of the Lord Almighty. Into our hands, He has placed the authority of heaven. Yes, the Lord is our master and we are called to serve Him. But He is also our loving Father, who cares for us more deeply that the silly birds and flowers who are incapable of intimacy with Him.

Circumstances may bring us to the edge of a seeming Cliff of Disaster. We may stand at that edge, constantly fearing that we will fall over it and disappear into the abyss. But God holds us in His hands. Jesus has told us time and again, the Lord is trustworthy, the Lord loves us as dearly as any parent loves his children. Just as He will not give us stones when we ask for the needed daily bread, He does not give us desolation when we need life. We just need to stop letting our expectations and desires cloud our vision. We need to see just what the Lord has given us: it might be plain sustaining bread when we were looking for feasts. But He does not give us stones to eat.