You may or may not have heard the story about the conversation father and his daughter regarding some imitation pearls that she always wore around her neck. She loved those fake pearls. But every night at bedtime, her father asked her to give him those pearls.

She would ask why, but he just said, “Trust me.”

She couldn’t bring herself to give up what she loved so dearly. So every night, the same scenario would play out. Her father would ask for her pearls, she would refuse, and he would tuck her in and tell her he loved her.

Finally, with tears in her eyes, she gave him her pearls. It was like ripping a piece of her heart out, but she handed them over.

He reached behind him and pulled out a box containing a strand of real pearls that he gave her instead. Unbeknownst to her, he had been carrying the box the entire time. She just had to let go of the imitation to receive the real.

In the same way, God sometimes has to say no to what we ask — not because it’s too grand and too much, but because we ask for too little based on our limited perspective. We have to let go of the bad — and sometimes even the good — to make room for something better. Something much bigger and better.

Sometimes, the answer is not yet because we’re not ready yet to receive what God has for us. God knows that getting the gift without the character to handle it would destroy us, so He molds us and waits until we are able to bear what He gives us.

Ultimately, God gives us God. God doesn’t give us anything apart from Himself because there is nothing else that meets the deep longing inside us. God gives God to us.