Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:9-11
Our kitchen has a drawer we refer to as “The Snack Drawer.” Unlike “The Weapons Drawer” – which is a
thing of my five-year-old’s making and does not actually hold weapons, but
instead holds things that could potentially be used for weapons – The Snack
Drawer, as its name would imply, does hold snacks.
Each of my four kids are allowed to have a snack during
the day at school, so each of them reaches their hand into The Snack Drawer once
every morning or two to grab something to stash in their backpack for later in
the day. Some things in the snack drawer (like Cheezits or Goldfish crackers) are considered to be top notch, and these go first. Mid-level snacks (like pretzels and granola bars) go next. Last resort
snacks include, but are not limited to, boxes of raisins and things they claim to be allergic to.
On a recent morning, a murmuring and rumble of discontent arose
in the kitchen as three of four kids stood peering into the snack drawer. From where I stood, near the kitchen sink, I
could see the drawer wasn’t empty. But still, they complained. I moved in for
a closer look and the children split like the sea and lifted their gaze from the near-empty drawer to me.
It was, indeed, time to replenish.
“Hold on,” I said.
I went to the pantry in the laundry room and pulled out the
box I’d been saving. I carried it into
the kitchen, with the twins trailing behind me, and held it high over the open drawer. I tipped the box, dramatically, and assorted snacks in red packages, orange
and green, poured down like rain. The kids circled and pawed at the pile, as
though I’d cracked open a piñata.
My one son, the one with the Weapons Drawer, grabbed an
off-brand peanut butter granola bar.
“Mom!”
he said, in a deep voice he puts on when he feels the moment demands, “I LOVE
THESE!”
Everyone’s hand found something good.
Isaiah, exuberant in the face of so many good
choices, eager to hoard the things he loves best, announced that he was going to take four or five snacks to school with him that
day. I quickly restated our one snack a day limit.
That moment, with its flash of color and exclamations of delight hangs, like a snapshot in the corner of my mind. That’s what God’s like, I think. God – the giver of good gifts, the filler of drawers we once thought too empty or sparse to satisfy.
* I’m well aware that too often ‘the drawer’ of life is empty, sparse, or filled with things we’d rather avoid. But, scripture is clear that there may not always be a direct correlation between the circumstances of our lives and the character of God. So, rather than drawing conclusions about God based on what we find in life’s drawer, we might be better served to see the good things as signs of God’s presence because, even in the midst of life’s struggles, we can still be certain of the God’s character.
