Thanks to the changes that COVID-19 has brought for the education system, nightly dinner conversations have shifted from “How was school today?” to “How was zoom today?” and sometimes our conversations go down strange and interesting rabbit holes. Just earlier this week was one of those times, but the rabbit hole we travelled down was a good reminder for me of how my children view me and how our relationship with God should be.
We had been talking about how one of her teachers likes to start off their lessons with videos to make the kids laugh. The video for that particular day just happened to be a sequence of practical jokes and my daughter was having a hard time not laughing as she was telling me about the poor victims of entertainment.
As though someone flipped a switch controlling her emotions, she got very serious and said “Mom, do you remember when you boiled the tide-pod and told me that you were going to drink the tide-pod?” I felt the confusion spread across my face as she continued. “That wasn’t a funny joke. I thought you were really going to drink the tide-pod. Can you not joke like that anymore?”
I had to go back through my treasure chest of memories to remember this instance of which she spoke. It had been before school started back up and I had been boiling water to wash my masks and thought it would be funny to see her reaction if she thought I was going to drink the tide-pod. At the time of the joke it was funny, especially seeing her reaction when I placed my masks within the soapy water, and she concluded that I was being goofy.
As I came back to the present, I giggled. “I can’t believe that you actually thought I was going to drink it. Honestly, I thought you were going to call my bluff.”
She looked at me with her big blue eyes and with a somewhat angry tone answered me with “You’re my mom. I always trust what you say.”
There it was. The punch to the stomach that I will never forget and a lifelong lesson that should never be forgotten. As her parent, she trusts what I say to be true. She trusts that when I say I’m going to do something I’m going to do it. Our relationship with God should be the same way. He is our father, and just as our children trust in us, we should trust in the Lord.
I understand that this concept of trusting someone that you cannot see and that you do not know is more difficult for some people. Not all of us have had people in our lives that we can trust so when we don’t have good examples of “trustworthy people” in our lives, it’s hard to comprehend that there is someone out there who is worthy of our faith and trust. But the bible gives us multiple examples of why we should trust God and what He does for us when we do.
Hebrews 13:8 tells us that He is the same yesterday, the same today, and the same forever. This means that God does not change and neither does His love for us, His children. Most people who have trust issues, have trust issues because of things people have done to them throughout their lifetime, so let me put this bluntly. God is not going to walk out on you because He’s bored with you. God is not going close the door in your face because you no longer look appealing to Him. God isn’t going to leave you nor forsake you! In fact, if you go up from the Hebrews 13:8 to Hebrews 13:5 we’re even given this promise!
“But how do I know I can trust God?” you ask. I get it. I asked this same question when I started coming back to my faith in God. I have always said trust isn’t something that is just given out like popcorn at Les Schwab. It must be earned. In my mind, God had to “earn” my trust. As I began to look back on my life and realized how evident it was that He had been beside me all along, He didn’t earn my trust. I gave it to Him wholeheartedly because I saw that He carried me in my darkest times (Isaiah 46:4) even when I refused to acknowledge Him.
Because He will never leave you or forsake you, because He carries you through the storm even when you can’t see it, that also means that He’s not a dead-beat parent. Yes, I just went there. Unfortunately we live in a day in age where so many parents over the last few generations have ditched out on their responsibilities to their children. The result of this has been many children (some who are now adults) who have parental trust issues. Why? Because one or both of their parents backed out on their responsibilities. The God that I have come to know, trust, and love is not that parent. Even when I was not a believer, somehow even during the worst times I always trusted that somehow, I would be provided with what I needed in that moment. It may not have always been what I wanted, but I always had what I needed (Matthew 6:25).
To put in a different viewpoint, my children trust that I will make sure that they have what they need. They don’t know how much it costs, they don’t know whether it’s a struggle to provide it or not, they just trust that there will always be a roof over their head and food in their bellies. If you’ve never had a parent that has made sure to fulfil this promise to you, trust me when I tell you that you have a father in Heaven that can and will take care of you. You only have to trust in Him.
I understand that trusting someone you don’t know is a hard thing to do, especially if you’ve been burned by people in the past, but thankfully God is not a person. He’s our creator and once you give Him a chance and start trusting in Him and His promises to His children, you will see that there is no one else who deserves your trust more. He sent His only son to die for us. What more could He possibly give to earn our trust?