Blessings/Cursings

Let me tell you a story.  I didn't make this up, but I like it well enough to share it with anyone who will listen and learn. 

   Once upon a time, long, long ago and far, far away, there lived a woodcutter and his only son.  They were very poor.  They eeked out a meager living by cutting wood and selling it in the town square.  It was hard work, and they carried the wood in a small cart that they pulled by hand. And the towns people all said, "you are cursed in your poverty."

    One morning, they awoke to find a horse standing outside their door, and after being unable to find the owner, they eventually claimed her to be their own.  She was able to pull the cart, making it possible to cut and sell more wood then ever.  The towns people all said, "What a blessing this horse is for you."

   Weeks later, the horse ran away, and the woodcutter was forced to return to life as it had been before, and the towns people all said, "What a cursing that horse was for you".

   The next day, the horse returned with 4 other horses and the towns people all said, "What a blessing this horse is for you."

   The young son had a plan.  He would train the horses and sell them, and earn much money, but in so doing, the was thrown from the horse and broke both his legs. The towns people all said, "What a cursing that horse is for you."

   A few weeks later, a war broke out in the land, and all the young men were enlisted to go fight in the battle. But the son was unable to go because his legs were broken.  And the towns people all said, "What a blessing it was that the horse threw him"

The moral of this story: Blessings and Cursings. Ups and Downs. Good and the Bad.  It's all just part of the roller coaster of life,the circle of life.  But when I'm in the middle of the 'cursing' cycle it's hard to see out of it.  But when I'm in the 'blessing'  cycle, and  I take time to look back, I usually find that there's been alot of good stuff in the 'cursing'.  And sometimes miracles hide.

 

This photo of the thunderstorm in Eldorado this weekend was sent

                                                     to the TV station by a viewer, no name available.

I'm sure that for some of the folks getting rained on, this was a "cursing." But for the farmers in

our area, this rain was a "blessing" and my, oh my, wasn't it beautiful?

But have no illusions, just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that you're immune from the "bad" things that happen in life.  (But that's a topic for another day)

for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  Mathew 5:4