We may not always see it, or feel it, we might forget it’s there at times, or even wonder if God’s left us to fend for ourselves in the heat of hard situations in life. But His protection is real. He sees what we can't see. He knows what we may not know. And if we belong to Him, we can trust, He's with us, every step, going before us, and covering our back too.
Yet in a world of dark, He often gets blamed for a lot of stuff that swirls around us. We ask questions like: "Why would God let that happen? Why didn't He do something different? Why did God cause that to happen?"
But the truth is we often have no idea how much He has protected us from, how He's continually working on our behalf, even behind the scenes where we can't see. There are many times in our life where we may have wanted a certain opportunity or outcome and been left with the complete opposite. Of course, that left us in disappointment but often we don't consider the ramifications of whether or not that thing we truly wanted was what's best for us. The reality is that only God can see what could've been and if He decides against something, we should be inclined to trust that whatever He has in store for us in His our best interest and for His maximum glory.
One thing that I've begun to grasp in this life is that God’s love often withholds the very thing I think I need. It's because of God's love for me that He doesn't give me what I want, but shows me what I need. In the same way that a child often impulsively wants things that are toxic or harmful for them, the parent knows what is often best for the child. I really am thankful beyond belief for for all the things that never happened in my life and for all the things I never got because I know that in His sovereignty and goodness, God was and is continuing to do what is best.
Simply put, sometimes we need to thank God for what didn’t happen.