Blessings in Disguise

We have a tree in our front yard that I love, it’s a kukui tree. In the old days oil from its nuts was used for light. The leaves have an interesting shape and they are large giving a lot of shade. My husband gets annoyed with this tree because it’s messy. He constantly has to clean up the leaves and nuts. So every now and then when I get home (generally with thoughts of getting a good picture of the tree or using the leaves in some crafty way) I find he has gone and topped the tree. And I do mean top it! Not much left of the tree at all. I fuss at him but all he says is it’ll grow back – no worry!
Recently I’ve been searching for hearts in nature. I was inspired by an article I saw in a book. Now we have lots of leaves here that are heart shaped and I have managed to find a few more things but not that many. Imagine my surprise one day as I sat on our front porch have a cup of coffee. As I let my eyes feast on our yard and revel in the birds and butterflies I glanced at our kukui tree, now covered in leaves, and saw the heart. My husband hadn’t even been trying to create it, it just happened. It won’t last forever but I’m enjoying it for the moment and it got me thinking. I stressed and fussed each time he cut that tree not knowing that someday I would be blessed by a heart. (God sometimes gets out His pruning shears and gives us a good topping too! He’s trying to bring out His heart in us.)
I can think of a lot of other events in my life that seemed to be blessings in disguise. Once we were driving to church when my husband had such a severe headache come on all of a sudden that he had to pull over and let me drive. I grumbled because I wanted to get to there a little early in order to speak with our pastor. Now that wouldn’t happen. But as I drove down the freeway we came to a dead stop – there had been a multi-car, multi-lane accident that had it not been for the headache we would have been in the middle of it. And my husband’s headache was gone. Blessing in disguise!
What about the time I was up for a promotion. I was so excited and confidant because after the testing and interviews I was number 1 on the list. I had the job. But not so fast they gave it to one of the other workers. I was crushed and unsure of myself. Later I talked with the one who got the job and she told me how lucky I was because she had to be dishonest on a regular basis with her clients. That would never have worked for me, I would have been miserable. A secondary blessing was one of the requirements for the job was to have a valid driver’s license which I didn’t have at the time. I hadn’t driven for 15-20 years so I asked my sister-in-law to go with me and help me brush up on my driving skills. I didn’t want to risk being turned down for the job based on such a simple thing. I got my license and have been driving ever since. What a blessing to not have to rely on others to get around.
I have lots more instances of blessings in disguise but I’ll leave you with this last one. Now I live on the rainy side of the big island of Hawaii. We see a lot of rainbows but this particular day was different, one I’ll never forget. Passing showers, a pleasant drive into work, easy day. As I got out of my car there over my head was the biggest, most breathtaking, brilliant rainbow I have ever seen! It was stunning! My heart soared at the beauty of God’s creation and the wonder of His promises. I floated into work and began to tell everyone of this wondrous sight. Within an hour I received a heart rending phone call from my beloved daughter telling me about the situation she was in. As I began to pray for strength and help for my daughter I realized what God had already done. He knew of the coming phone call and had prepared me with that rainbow as a sign of His Love and grace and the promise that everything would be all right. He has never failed me yet.

So when you are counting your blessings don’t forget the ones in disguise!