Have you ever faced a situation in your life that you felt just wasn't fair? Perhaps you prayed for something to happen, but it didn't? Did you find yourself feeling like God didn't hear you, didn't answer your prayer? I was talking to some little girls after one of our services. I guess they were about 10 years old. They knew that my Mom had terminal cancer and had been healed from it. They told me their grandpa also had cancer and that they had prayed for him, but God didn't answer them. Their grandpa died. Of course I was heartbroken for them! I know the loss of losing a grandparent from cancer. I shared with them that my Grandma had also died of cancer, and that I had prayed for her too. I assured them that God did indeed hear my prayers, just as He heard theirs, but sometimes God gives us answers that we don't expect or even want. Sometimes God says, no or wait awhile; sometimes God says yes. As we talked I shared with them that just as their parents know what is best for them, and doesn't always let them have the things they want, God knows what is best for all of us. He never said that we would all be cancer free, that we would never get colds and the flu like everyone else does. He just said that He has a special plan for all of us, and if we live according to His teachings, obey Him, then we will be following the plans He has for us. Sometimes it's hard to see "why" something has to happen, but God sees the bigger picture. I took our group photograph that they had brought up for me to sign, and I held it right up to their eyes, flat against their little noses. I asked them, "What can you see?" One said it was a blur, the other said something black. I then took the picture and held it back a few feet and asked them the same question. "I see a family, people," they said. I told them that while we are here on earth, we can't see God's whole plan for our lives. We only see a tiny portion and sometimes that might look blurry or just like a spot of black to us, but God sees the whole picture! He knows exactly what we are going through and why we are facing it. He knows what is best for us, and He knew what was best for their grandpa. I can't truly describe the look on their faces as we talked. It was as if a light was radiating out of them, peace and understanding flowed through their countenance. I assured them that their grandpa was totally healed now, that God had indeed answered their prayer. He had no more pain and no more cancer! He was alive in heaven and just waiting for them to arrive. They saw the bigger picture, at least in the sense that they knew they could never really see the "whole" picture of the plan of life as God sees it. When those who have been saved and transformed in Christ enter heaven, all the things we never understood will be clear. Just like those little girls, we will get to see the "bigger and whole" picture of God's plan. 1 Corinthians 13:11,12 explains this well:

"When I was a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."