My three-year-old grandson wanted to find a toy he’d misplaced. Maybe it was on the table? Not whining, he’d made a matter-of-fact statement. He wasn’t tall enough. Only the top of his head matched up with the forty-inch height of that modern table unlike the traditional thirty inches found in dining rooms for centuries.

“Is it there, Nona?”

He knew I was plenty tall enough to see everything on the table. Sure, he could’ve scrambled onto a stool to see for himself, but he was content to let me take care of things. His world is filled with toys at sofa cushion-level and below. Let the adults deal with the rest!

We live on earth, unable to see or grasp heavenly things. Of course, we can’t understand all that happens in our lives. We’re not “tall enough.”

Why didn’t God prevent this illness? Why doesn’t He save our loved ones from sure destruction if they don’t turn to Him? God, who can see everything, including heaven, knows the answers to our questions. He is capable of keeping both heaven and earth in order. Like my little grandson, can we accept the fact of our lives that we’re not “tall enough?” Let God take care of things?

A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy describes how God’s sovereignty includes His attributes of being “all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free. He is free to do whatever He wills, anywhere, at any time to carry out His eternal purpose.” *

Some people cry, “Not fair!”

Why is this not fair? God knows everything and sees everything in our world, in distant worlds, and in the supernatural world invisible to the human eye.

He knows how the tiniest components of a living cell work together and build upon each other until a mother can behold her newborn.

He sees beyond what our most powerful telescopes can show us.

Even more intangible is His ability to know the hearts and minds of men. While we rail at Him for allowing evil into the world, He knows why He has allowed what He has allowed.

In my puny comparison above, my grandson couldn’t see what the grown-up could see. I had the knowledge of what existed on the table. I had the power to manipulate what was on the table. The three-year-old was glad to depend on my “sovereignty” in that moment to let him know if his toy was there or not (and would I get it for him?). He trusted my abilities.

Can we say, “I’m not tall enough?” By next year, my grandson will probably be able to see everything on the tabletop, but as human beings, we will never attain the complete power and knowledge that God owns.

We can know Him better and grow taller and see more at a new height than we could see previously. As we stretch higher, we’ll recognize how God used for good what we didn’t understand before.

He is trustworthy, and even though we can’t see all that’s ahead, it’s okay. We’ll see more as we grow in spirit.

We’re just not tall enough yet.

__________

* Aiden Wilson Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: Harper Collins, 1961) p. 108.

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