Daily Devotional for April 26, 2019
Tough Break
Elijah hobbled into the house, with Dad following right behind. “Crutches!” Mom exclaimed. “What did the doctor say?”
“My foot’s broken,” Elijah replied. “My baseball season is over. This is not the way to start summer!”
“Doc said to keep his foot up. No weight on it until his next appointment,” Dad said.
“I’ll get some pillows,” Mom said. “Let’s get you settled on the couch.”
After a couple hours of playing video games, Elijah realized he wasn’t having fun. He felt tired, his foot hurt, and he couldn’t stop thinking about how unfair it seemed. He closed his eyes. “Why did this have to happen, God?” he asked.
“Elijah, wake up,” Mom whispered. “John’s here to see you.”
“How are you doing?” John asked after Mom left the room. “Our team’s really going to miss your pitching.”
“I’m going to miss playing ball,” Elijah said. “This is not what I had planned.”
“Yeah, it’s a tough break,” John said with a grin.
Elijah rolled his eyes. “Your pun isn’t funny.”
“Remember last winter when I got the flu right before our field trip to the planetarium?” John asked.
Elijah nodded. “I bought you that book about stars and planets to cheer you up.”
“Yeah,” said John. “I was pretty upset. But then I realized I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself and trust Jesus to be with me and work things out His way instead. And when I was better, Mom took me to the planetarium.
It wasn’t the way I had planned to go, but Mom and I had a great time.”
“That reminds me of the verse we learned in church last week about how God works everything together for good,” Elijah said.
“Yeah,” said John. “Or even how Jesus prayed, ‘May Your will be done,’ as He was dying on the cross.”
The boys were quiet for a minute. Then John pulled something out of his backpack. “Here—I brought you this.”
Elijah laughed as John handed him the book about stars and planets. “Thanks,” he said. “And thanks for the encouragement. Even though I won’t be playing ball this summer, I know God’s got this!”
How about you?
Have you ever been disappointed because things didn’t go as you had hoped and planned? Everyone has times when things just don’t seem to go right. But Jesus is always in control, and He uses the difficulties in our lives to make us more like Him. When things don’t go your way, trust Him to be with you and work things out for good.
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