My daughter’s 10th birthday is this Saturday. When I was 10, I was into model rockets (and anything else with explosives involved). You can imagine how happy I was when Madeline told me she wanted a rocket set. She saw it in a hobby store and was ecstatic at the thought of firing off a projectile in our backyard.
So I went back later and bought it for her. The whole shebang: two rockets, parachutes and parts, engines and igniters, the launch pad and controller.
I couldn’t wait until Saturday. I gave it to her five days early. I placed it proudly on the kitchen table in front of her, and thoroughly enjoyed her delight when she opened it.
Then I asked if she wanted to build one of the rockets, right then and there. Of course! We gathered all the supplies we needed (glue, masking tape, a hobby knife, sandpaper…) and got to work.
That statement requires modification: I got to work.
Madeline hung in there for a couple of minutes; but when it became clear that the art of rocketry goes slightly beyond a bang in the backyard, she opted out. She sat in the other room and watched TV while I manufactured the missile.
This made me a little frustrated. I’d given her an amazing gift! Why wasn’t she participating in the process of putting it together?
There are two reasons. First, I’m hard to work with. (That’s another blog for another time.) But the second is this: like so many of us, she just wanted to see it fly.
Often, we don’t want to do the hard work of shaping attitudes and aptitudes that lead to success: we just want to see our careers fly.
We don’t want to steward our money for God’s glory, giving and saving and investing wisely: we just want to see our finances fly.
We don’t want to strengthen our marriages through sacrifice and selfless expressions of love and respect: we just want to see our relationships fly.
We don’t want to go through the process of praying intensely for something significant to happen: we just want to see our situations fly.
And because we have a kind and generous God, sometimes he builds it for us, and pulls us out in the backyard to watch it fly.
But other times he leaves the parts on the table until we’re ready to get involved in the process.
I sat at that table for an hour building the rocket. Now it’s ready to roll. This is one of those times when my daughter will get to simply see it fly. But there’s a second model in the box that I won’t be assembling alone. To see the next one soar, she’s going to have to build it.
Don't sit around and fantasize about God handing you everything ready-made. Join your Father in the hard work of constructing something. It'll feel much better when you finally see it fly.
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