Let Go and Let God

As a parent we all want the very best for our children and pray that they grow up strong and able. But, none of us is gifted with a crystal ball that will give us all the answers to how this can be accomplished without some amount of pain.
My family has for years dealt with issues of depression, suicidal thoughts, alchol, drugs and sexual orientation. As a parent we most want to simply wrap them up and protect them from all the outside influences that might cause them harm. But, I have seen in my own life that sometimes when we want most to take away their pain, is when we have to let them go through it.
I'm not saying that I made all the wrong choices or all the right choices myself. I will be the first to say I did not. But, through all of it, I have grown and found that as much as I might want to heal my child's broken heart or raise them up from the melancholy they are in or lock up all the things that they may be hurt by....I don't have that power.
Only God can take these things away. Only He knows when the time for intervention is. He knows the precise moment at which intervention is right and in what way.
At this joyous time of year when we embrace the true spirit of Christmas, the birth of our Lord....
I want to stop for just one moment to think about how our Heavenly Father knew that this precious child, who had done no wrong - perfect in every way. A most beautiful gift to the world. Would suffer at the hands of the very people He was sent to save. That He would wander alone and be tempted. That He would call out to His Father in His last moments for comfort.
I am a mother and I can only image a small portion of what Our Father must have felt.
As parents, we cry as we send our child off to daycare or school the first day. We kiss their boo boos to make even the tiniest pain go away. Our hearts break when we watch them try to master some skill that they fail attempt after attempt at. We cry with them when their heart is broken for the first time. We cry & rejoice when they graduate, get married and have children.

I am thankful that I don't have a crystal ball as it would break my heart to know what lay ahead and have no power to change it. It is because of these things that I know I would not have been strong enough to watch Christ suffer as Our Father did. He knew what lay ahead for Christ before His birth and still allowed it, in order to save all of us.
There is this old thing about how if you were to travel back in time, you couldn't do anything different because it would change the whole outcome of the worlds fate. Well, Our Heavenly Father didn't need to go anywhere He could have changed any of it at any moment. But, He knew what must be done. And loved ALL His children enough to let things take their course.
Thank the Lord that we don't have that power or that choice to make. But, each day we are given other struggles to deal with and each one requires us to know when we must Let Go & Let God. He is the one who can intervene, when and where and how it is needed. We have but a few (I didn't say easy) jobs .... Love the Lord with all our hearts, Love our child unconditionally and then Let Go & Let God.
I know it sounds easy, I also know that it isn't. So, as I myself continue to work on doing just those things. I will pray for each and every parent out there. That they might find strength in knowing that God is in control. That the Lord sees the big picture and He is in control.