Chandler's drama teacher is a cancer survivor that has been bald for seven years as a result of chemotherapy.
The other day Chandler came home from school and told me, "Mom, Mrs. Leach's hair is growing back! Can you believe it?"
The next time I saw Mrs. Leach it was evident that her hair was, in fact growing back. When I commented about it to her, she said to me, "I don't know why, after all these years, but it pleased God to give me back my hair, and I am truly grateful."
It pleased God. Those words have stuck with me. If I were that woman I would have been a lot more focused on what pleased ME. I spend so much time, energy, and money trying to please ME. I rarely look at a circumstance and consider that God was acting for His own good pleasure. But I want to take this perspective when it is right to do so, for it is a sweet truth.
God is pleased to do good things for us. And His timing, His perfect will, His great patience, His compassion, and His abounding love all play into His good pleasure. At the same time, not everything brings God pleasure. While it pleased God to cause Mrs. Leach's hair to grow at this point in time, it is not right to assume that it pleased Him to have her go bald for seven years, or even that it pleased Him for her to have cancer in the first place.
Scripture is clear that God does not delight in the suffering of humanity. Oh how we search and search for the answer to why there is pain in this life. I don't have those answers, but I know God tells us over and over not to be surprised by trials and tribulations as long as we live in a fallen world.
I wonder, though, why we seldom seem surprised by the blessings in our lives. For some reason, we expect them. We know that every good and perfect gift comes from God, but the question remains: Why does He give us good things? We, the undeserving. The fallen. The broken. The prideful. The wicked. Truly, the fact that we receive any blessings at all is by far the greater wonder than the fact that we face suffering. Why does God ever bestow goodness on us? I guess because He loves us, warts and all! His blessings do not flow out of pity or compulsion. He certainly doesn't owe us anything. It simply gives Him pleasure.
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Great truths. Perhaps the all knowing God knew in advance that he would receive gratitude, which really pleases Him even more? This is part of His GLORY.
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