COLUMBUS, IN - I watched our 5-year-old son Daniel with great interest. His adorable curly blond hair, highlighted by the bright summer sun, clashed with his knitted, wrinkled brow and scrunched up face. He faced a dilemma and was wrestling with a decision he was about to make. We were at a wooden boat show on the Chesapeake Bay and a toy wooden submarine with a small weight and rubber band wind up propeller had caught his eye. What would he do?

“Dad, I really want to buy this boat,” Daniel said.

“I know Daniel, but it will cost all the money you have.”

“I don’t care. I really want it.”

We had given Daniel a specific amount of money that was his to spend on our vacation, and there were still several days left. My father’s heart went out to him.

“Daniel, I’ll give you a choice. You can either use up all your money and buy this yourself. Or you can let me buy it for you and trust I will give it to you later at the right time.”

Daniel cradled the little boat in his hands, gazing at it longingly for about thirty seconds, and then handed it to me. “You can buy it.”

I gently took the little craft, paid the vendor, and then handed it back to my wide eyed son.

There were many things I asked of Daniel at that age. I expected him to pick up his toys, put his clothes away, and wash his face and brush his teeth before bed, among others. I was obviously pleased when he obeyed. But this was different. The trust he placed in me, his willingness to forgo immediate gratification, believing I had his best in mind, and that he was loved, touched my father heart. And we had great fun together, playing with that little submarine in our neighborhood pool when we returned home!

Is it not also so with our Heavenly Father? There are many commands in God’s Word that we do well to obey. Yet it is the trust we place in Him, even when circumstance scream otherwise,  that touches His heart and enables us to experience the joy of His pleasure. Brennan Manning describes this pleasure in his book Ruthless Trust. 

“… the splendor of a human heart which trusts that it is loved gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, the sight of ten thousand butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it.”

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” Psalm 13:5