Recently my son came to me and expressed sadness at our meagre financial situation as missionaries. He is in a class with students whose parents are well-off financially and so his friends have fancy birthday parties at interesting venues and go off on amazing vacations around the world. My son said, “Sometimes I feel left behind. I know that what we have with God is better, but I’d still like to go to Lazer Tag for my birthday and go on a cruise like everyone else in my class.”
I understand the sentiment. I too sometimes find it hard when my peers are buying houses and doing
expensive renovations, while our family lives in subsidized housing.
As I talked this over with my son, I mentioned that one of our colleagues had just been gifted a cruise by a friend of hers. Other colleagues of ours were given a special 40th anniversary vacation in the Amazon. We ourselves were gifted an Instant Pot the day after I prayed for a new one, and we had a church generously contribute towards our family buying a new-to-us van. There are many other stories of amazing provisions, not just for needs or items related to ministry goals, but just amazing, generous gifts from God. They remind us He is a good Father who knows how to give good gifts to his children. I said- “You know that every time your birthday comes around, I have to try to talk your dad into buying you a reasonable Lego set, not something extravagant. If your dad feels that way about buying you gifts because he loves you, imagine how much more God wants to do that for us. And that’s what the Bible teaches us in Matthew 7. But when we go after those gifts, thinking that the gifts themselves will make us happy, we miss out. We might get the gift but lose out on seeing the love of the Giver, and our happiness will be short-lived. We get the best of both worlds – the greatest treasure of Jesus, and the knowledge that God is able to give us extravagant gifts at the right time and in the right way to help us grow in our love for Him.”
I encouraged my son not to be shy to ask God for things that were on his heart, that God was pleased by that because He does delight to give us good gifts. But I also encouraged him not to get caught up in the “good things” that this world has to offer, which hold no lasting value when separated from the One who gives them.
I recently read- “We live simply, so that others may simply live.” With that in mind, it is easier for me to not long for fancy houses, adventurous vacations, or the latest wardrobe, but to receive with gratitude the weekly donations of bread and meat. Let us not underestimate the magnitude of the treasure we have in Jesus. Let us also not underestimate the goodness of our Father and be bold to expect good and extravagant gifts from him
From one of our workers in Canada