Trying to teach kids to think for themselves can be…challenging.
My five kids are still in the stage where they often, if not usually, want Mommy to have all the answers. They bring me all sorts of dilemmas. Maybe some of these sound familiar:
“Mommy, I can’t find my shoes.” (Child then stands there waiting for you to do something about it.)
“Mommy, I want to buy (insert the name of a toy or video game here), but I don’t have any money.”
“Mommy, Lindsey’s using the markers, and I want to use them.”
It’s sometimes frustrating trying to teach children to attempt to work something out on their own before giving up and looking in the back of the book for the answers. After all, it’s so much easier just to ask Mommy. Takes less brainpower. And Mommy will often just give the answer because she’s too tired to guide the aforementioned child through the laborious process of reasoning out in 5 minutes what it took her 5 seconds to figure out.
I know for a fact that Jesus understood how hard it is to get people (even adults) to think for themselves. The Bible tells us about several instances of Jesus’ trying to get the disciples or others to figure out things on their own. We read about one such situation in John chapter 6. Jesus has been preaching to a large crowd, and it’s dinnertime. The crowd is hungry. The only problem is, nobody seems to have brought any food, and they’re out in the country, so nobody can just drive to the grocery store, either. What are they going to do?
That’s what the disciples are wondering. When Jesus asked Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Phillip must have thought, Beats me! Guess we’re out of luck.
That’s in verse 5. But look at what verse 6 says: “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”
The response He wanted from Phillip was something like, “I don’t know, Lord. But I bet You do.” Or maybe, “It’s hopeless unless You do something about it.” In other words, He wanted Phillip to look to Him as the source of the solution to the dilemma. Instead, Phillip stopped with “I don’t know,” and “It’s hopeless.”
But even though Jesus was asking Phillip to think things through a little bit, and even though He sometimes does the same for us, He knew then—and He knows now—what He is going to do. All the while Phillip was getting confused and coming up with the wrong response, Jesus knew what He was going to do.
And all the while you, today, are struggling, Mom—all the while you are confused and uncertain, and you don’t see any possible way to make things work out right—Jesus knows what He is going to do.
Whatever situation you face, Jesus knows what He is going to do about it. Yes, He might ask you to think and pray things through before He reveals His answer. Yes, He might even ask you to contribute a little something toward the solution (as the boy contributed his lunch). But even in the midst of everything you face—whether pain, confusion, frustration, or all of the above—He knows what He is going to do.
So why doesn’t He tell me??? you wonder. I don’t know. I don’t know why He sometimes withholds an answer long past the time when we plead for one. But I do know that there’s a reason, and it’s not because He hasn’t figured out what He should do to help you. It’s not because Jesus is confused or surprised by your situation and hasn’t had time to make plans. No, His plans for your circumstances were already in place before the foundation of the world.
And at the proper time, to be determined by Him and not by you or me, He will reveal those plans and set them into motion.
Just because He hasn’t put the solution in place yet doesn’t mean He doesn’t care. I suppose Phillip could have concluded that Jesus didn’t care when Jesus asked Him the question. But Phillip would have been wrong.
Jesus’ solutions don’t always come in our timing. But they will come at the right time, and they will be better solutions than anything we could ask or imagine. After all, the disciples picked up 12 baskets full of leftovers. Jesus not only provided a feast, He provided abundantly more than what was needed.
Guess what? He’ll do the same for us. He’s got a solution in mind that will be so perfect we’ll be amazed.
When? I don’t know. What will it look like? I don’t know that either. But I do know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So I also know that the Jesus who knew what to do then, knows what to do now.
“He already [knows] what He [is] going to do.”
John 6:6—He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Hebrews 13:8—Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.