“You need not cry very loud; he is nearer to us than we think.” – Brother Lawrence

Meet our cat, Abi. She likes everything to always be the same. She likes her Amazon box. She loves to be brushed.

She does not love being put in her carrier to ride in the car. Scary. Might end up at the vet. And her cries are like prayers asking us to set her free.

If you have a pet, you can relate, right? Have you ever thought that our relationship to our pets might be somewhat parallel God’s relationship to us? He knows what we like, but there are times he put us through something equivalent to getting in the carrier to go to the vet. We don’t understand how what he’s doing is for our good. For us it’s just scary and uncomfortable, so we cry out to him in prayer.

Can you imagine how infinitely more God loves us than we love our pets? He faithfully walks with us as we suffer, but his love is too great to give us the relief we pray for. Relief won’t come until he has accomplished his purposes for us and maybe for those around us.

We cannot understand that kind of love from a human perspective. We can only find glimpses as we ourselves cause necessary pain to someone we love even though they can’t understand why.

Know this: God loves us infinitely. He’s always working for our good. And he walks with us through the struggles.

Sense his presence. Trust his love. Something good is happening even when we can’t see it.

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” – 1 Peter 5:10