When I was 14, I went on a mission trip to Mexico with my youth group. It was almost Christmas, so we filled huge trash bags with toys and walked through a sprawling, pitiful-looking community–full of houses made of corrugated tin and cardboard–giving toys to each child we saw and speaking and praying with people.
We came to one house, and a little boy who was probably around 3 or 4 was playing outside with his mom. He was playing with an old, broken metal dump truck that was resisting his efforts to roll around on the dirty carpet beneath him.
I smiled at this sweet little boy and held out my hands. In broken Spanish, I asked him to please hand me his truck, because I had something better for him.
At first he hugged the broken truck to his chest and shook his head; “No! Don’t take my special thing!”
It was so frustrating; I wasn’t trying to take his truck away because I didn’t want to him have a fun toy to play with, but because I had a better toy for him. A toy that was new and functional and would help him have more fun than ever before.
Eventually, reluctantly, he handed the old, broken dump truck to me–and gave me the stink eye for emphasis.
Then!! Once his hands were empty, I placed a brand new dump truck in his hands. A shiny, functioning, better-than-anything-he’d-ever-seen toy. His eyes lit up.
It was the best feeling in the world, replacing an okay thing with a better thing for that little boy.
I only knew this child for a few minutes, but I relished in replacing the broken thing in his life with a good, new thing. How much more does our Heavenly Father, our loving Daddy God, delight in lavishing good things, better and best things, upon us?
Oh, friend! I know how painful it is to give up the current good thing–the job, relationship, addiction, house–but He is waiting, waiting to hand you the better and best thing.
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:9-11
