Blessings in Small Packages

It was 6:30 am on February 16, 1987. The place Osmond General Hospital. That was the time and place that my wife and I first became grandparents. I had just been appointed to serve a church in that community when we learned that our single, 16 year old daughter was going to have a baby. Oh my, did I ever go on a pity party. I knew that the church would ask us to leave, that my career would come crashing to an end, that we would be humiliated, etc. You see, I had a vision problem......if was all about "I" and not my daughter, my grandchild, my wife OR GOD. I was only concerned about what it might do to me. That's not the first pity party I have hosted, but it was certainly the most selfish. You see, I believed this was a bad thing.......a sort of curse. Now certainly, nobody wants to see their 16 year old single daughter get pregnant, but it turned out not to be a curse, but the greatest blessing God could ever give my wife and I. Our daughter, was not able to care for the child, so we raised her. When she was about 4 we adopted her. Let me insert here that there has never been an unwanted adoption. With the adoption came a new birth certificate showing my wife and I as the parents. It was NEW! God said, "Behold the old is gone and the new has come." Again He said, "I make all things new." This child has taught me how to love at a deeper level. God has taught me that Satan tries to tell us that something is a curse when all along it is a blessing. Satan is the father of lies and conceals his lies and makes them look like truth.
I could, and perhaps should, write a book about this experience and how our family and my life changed as a result. But what I want to tell you is that God can turn a perceived tragedy into a blessing when we allow Him to do so. Blessings don't just come in big packages, but most often in small ones that grow larger. As I drove around the corner on Highway 92 and approached the Platte River I had to stop for two adult turkeys with their chicks. One adult was in front and the other behind and the chicks were trotting across the road between the two. I was struck by the beauty, the simplicity, and the love lesson I saw. Truly it was a miracle in small packages. I couldn't have traveled more than 400 yards before I saw the most beautiful deer standing about 10 meters off the road. Another miracle, another gift from God. I love to garden and when I pick a ripe tomato off the vine it is a miracle. Only God can produce that fruit. I only plant the seed. But God also asks us to bear good fruit. He says to us that we will do "greater things than these." Let your blessings, large and small guide you into bearing fruit as you plant those seeds in others that are searching to see a blessing. I once did a funeral for a man who died much too early and on the same day as the funeral he became a grandfather. A baby was born and one was given back to God. Blessings abound. If you feel like you have more curses, more tragedy than you can stand, let God turn them into blessings, joy and peace.
God Bless You,
Neskypilot