I saw God at Walmart last week.
A mom was getting shoes for her two little boys. They looked to be about 4 and 7 years old.
She had found a pair of shoes that fit the older one. And he really liked them.
The younger one really liked them too. And that was the problem.
Because the 4-year-old didn’t just want the same shoes that she found for his big brother. He wanted the same shoes – in the same size as his big brother.
She was trying to get him to try on the shoes, but in a size that would fit him. And he was having none of it.
The more she tried, the more upset he became. Because she wouldn’t give him the same thing that she got for his brother.
He didn’t understand that she was trying to get him shoes that would work for him. Instead of the comically huge ones that he was demanding.
It gave me a glimpse of how you and I must look from God’s perspective.
When we see something that God did for someone else – someone else’s healing, someone else’s healthy relationship, someone else’s promotion, someone else’s successful struggle with addiction, someone else’s growing business.
And get bent out of shape because God didn’t do the exact same thing for us. Because He didn’t give us someone else’s miracle.
We all do it, just like the people in today’s Gospel. We pray for something, we ask God for it, we believe for it. And then get upset when God doesn’t do it for us the same way that He did it for someone else.
Whether our reaction takes the form of doubting ourselves, wondering whether we prayed and believed hard enough for it. Or if it takes the form of doubting God. Maybe even rejecting God because we didn’t get someone else’s miracle (or trying to kill Jesus like in today’s Gospel). It really doesn’t matter.
Because all of them leave us in the same place as the 4-year-old who was angry with his mom for not getting him the shoes he was demanding.
His anger makes perfect sense. But only to his self-absorbed 4-year-old brain.
All because he can’t see the big picture. Because he can’t see beyond himself enough to trust that his mother loves him and wants the best for him.
The challenge for you and me when it comes to our relationship with God?
To see if we can do better than a self-absorbed 4-year-old.