This morning, as I sat at the table eating my breakfast, I heard a familiar sound from the kitchen behind me.
“Uh-oh!”
Lindsey’s voice was accompanied by a brief whooshing sound. I turned to see her holding the box that used to contain Cheerios upside down. The aforementioned Cheerios were scattered all over the floor. Yep, the entire box.
Lindsey looked at me, her eyes open wide, her mouth a round “o”. I couldn’t help it. I laughed.
Relieved, Lindsey began laughing too. I ran for my camera to take a picture. “Wait! Don’t clean those up yet!” I called as I picked my way through the floor, trying not to mash any of the Cheerios.
I got my camera and captured the event for posterity. Then I said, “You know what? I have a great idea.”
“What?” Lindsey asked. She and Kenny, who was in the kitchen too, looked up at me.
“Let’s play with them,” I said.
They looked at me as if they weren’t certain whether to believe what they’d just heard. “What would we play?” they asked.
“Let’s get some little cars and make roads in the Cheerios,” I said.
“Yay!” they screeched, and ran off to get some Hot Wheels.
We played “drive the cars through the Cheerios”, as well as “hide the cars under the Cheerios”, and other games involving Littlest Pet Shop toys and making letters (even cursive ones) out of the Cheerios. We had a LOT of fun for about an hour. (You should try it sometime!)
Sure, I could have gotten mad when Lindsey spilled every last Cheerio. After all, they were wasted. Or were they? Those Cheerios weren’t put to their intended use (except for a few that, yes, the kids ate off the floor). But they weren’t wasted. They provided an hour of fun and memories that will last a long time.
And that’s the point. No experience in our lives has to be wasted. It might not have happened as we originally hoped or planned, but it can still mean something—sometimes even something beautiful. God can take absolutely any circumstance in our lives and bring good from it. That’s what Romans 8:28 means—not that everything that happens to us is good, but that God can bring good out of all things.
He’ll probably require our help, though. Not because He’s incapable of doing things on His own, but because He usually doesn’t force His blessings on us. Just as He knew all along that those Cheerios would get spilled and we’d end up playing with them, so He knows regarding each circumstance of our lives what He intends to make of it. But if we’re still mad that the Cheerios won’t get to be eaten anymore, we’ll miss the beauty of the playtime and the memories. In other words, if we refuse to accept that God caused or decided not to prevent our original circumstances from getting messed up, and we decide to stay resentful or mad, we’ll miss what He does intend to make out of it.
Some circumstances are hard, I know. Maybe even very hard. But the fact is, they happened. The Cheerios got spilled. The original plan (eating them) is no longer possible. So now, we have a choice. We can either hold onto our anger that we’ll have to go to Plan B, or we can let our anger go. We can accept the fact that even though we didn’t want a Plan B, even though we don’t like Plan B, we’re stuck with it. And if that’s the case, we might as well make the best we can out of it.
The Cheerios are gone. It’s not possible to eat them anymore. The only thing that’s possible is to choose our attitude—acceptance or resentment at their absence. Which will it be?
Romans 8:28—And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.