I read the following story years ago and it came to mind this morning as I was talking to my son Jonathan.
Jonathan is a musician and singer for a cruise ship. He had a flight from Tampa to NC early this morning. He said when they took off from Tampa International Airport there was a very loud sound and about five minutes into the fight they announced that they were going to go back to the airport and have the plane checked out. Jonathan said that he prayed about a hundred prayers. Everything settled down and they were able to go on their way. But because of the hurricane (Michael) they circled NC airport for about 20 minutes before they could land. He then had to run to get to his next fight but found that he would be there for an hour. His destination is SC and there to his ship. As we spoke he said, “Maybe I’m not supposed to go to SC at least for the moment…that maybe he was being protected in the delay…I said, exactly and I told him about the following story…sometimes things are not as they seem to us at the moment…
Please pray for my youngest son Jonathan on this journey, this is his job. He’ll be gone until January. He is in the best hands ever…Our Gracious Heavenly Father…no better hands to be in than his…amen!!
Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion’s guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.”
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.
The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel “How could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him,” she accused. “The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied. “When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t find it. Then last night as we slept in the farmer’s bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead.
“Things aren’t always what they seem.”
Author Unknown
The moral of this story:
Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don’t turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You might not know it until sometime later.
