God knows his children

It seems hard for us to fathom sometimes the depth to which God knows each of us individually. There are so many of us, we are very complex individuals, no two of us alike… Yet it is true, and I came to understand it on a small scale with an experience I had with my son, Eli.

As a child Eli had a terrible time with money. He was forever losing it. He went through so many wallets and coin purses, all with money in them, that, well, let’s just say that whoever found them was very delighted at the “finders keepers” rule and he made a lot of people delighted. I was reluctant to take over his money for him, he wouldn’t hear of that anyway. We tried keeping his money in his pockets, but it would always end up in his hand and get set down somewhere in a store while he looked at something and he wouldn’t remember where and… you get the picture.

In eighth grade, the band and choral group at the middle school went on a trip to Disneyland. Eli belonged to both. His older brother, although already in high school, was invited along, too (he had also belonged to both and they wanted to feature him as a soloist on the national anthem for their performances). The students were told how much money to bring for their meals and were given a choice: they could hang onto the money themselves or have the chaperones hang onto it for them and dole it out as needed. Both my boys opted for the former. I could see that being a problem for Eli. Knowing Eli would surely lose his money, I secretly gave extra to his brother, Nate, which he could dole out as needed if/when that happened.

The second day of the trip I got a phone call from Eli. He had been in the arcade and set his wallet down just for a minute and when he looked for it, it was gone, stolen! I told him that he could get some money from Nate and he wouldn’t starve. Crisis avoided.

I was very grateful that I knew Eli well enough to prepare ahead and get him through that learning experience. And I began to understand how Heavenly Father can know each of us so well, well enough to place us in the right circumstances with just the right opportunities, just the right people to help us learn and grow into our very best selves.

Eli grew into a very careful money manager and has been financially independent for many years now. He put himself through school, is married with a daughter and is going back to school for his masters degree in psychology. But of course, I already knew everything would work out for him…