Lawyers, Trendlines and Really Good Gifts

It is hard to imagine, but when I was younger I knew even less about God than I know now.  To me He was a cold and distant figure.  Much like the president.  I believed He was there and that he was very powerful, but I wasn't doubtful He was interested in my personal happiness.

Perhaps I'd heard one too many stories about evil genies tricking would be wishers, or maybe junior high had made me just a little paranoid.  In any case, when I would pray for something, anything, I would turn my requests over and over in my head like a lawyer trying to construct an air-tight contract.  I thought, in my childish brain, that God might try to "answer" my prayer without really answering it. If I didn't get what I wanted, then it was my fault for not asking correctly.

"...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

Modern bread looks nothing like a stone, but the loaves of Jesus' time certainly did. Smooth and round baked in a brick oven it looked every bit like a stone.  And a snake in any era is pretty close to a fish.  Both are elongated scaly creatures with no limbs.  Obviously, Jesus meant to reassure all the little lawyers in His flock that the Father wasn't looking for prayer loopholes.

About five years ago, I received the gift of Multiple Sclerosis.  Now I sit in a hotel room in Albany, NY awaiting a treatment tomorrow that might just take it away.  Or it might not.  I have read the miraculous accounts of patients that felt cured.  I have also shared in the disappointment of those who's symptoms did not change.  What will be my experience?  Will this be the off-ramp from the road to disability, or simply a waste of time and money?  God knows what I want and what I am asking for, but tomorrow when this gift is unwrapped what will be inside?

Near the end of John the Baptist's life, while he was wasting away in prison, his disciples came to him to complain that he was losing followers to Jesus, perhaps expecting him to be upset or depressed about his declining popularity.  Surely he would have a plan of action!

John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.  ...  [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease." - John 3:27, 30

John's life was definitely on a downward trend-line with little chance of recovery.  Still, he saw the bigger picture and knew that God had a plan and that plan was Jesus.

Whatever God's gift to me tomorrow, I must remember these things: 

1. God only gives good gifts to His children.  
2. There is a bigger picture and it is not all about me.  
3. Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.  

Certainly I would love to unwrap a life free from MS.  That's my idea of a good gift.  God may have other plans.  But just maybe, His gift is better.  Either way, I have to remember that it is about Jesus and not about me.

...or is it?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." -John 3:16