Blessings in Disguise

I just found out yoga classes are going to be offered again where I work. I’m very excited. I love the way the Julie, who teaches the class, does so with a Christian perspective. I also like how she slowly guides us from pose to pose, and lets everyone work at their own level.

I really enjoy the feeling of a good stretch.

That doesn’t mean I’m all that flexible. In fact, for years I wondered why I couldn’t more easily touch my toes, or do some of those other amazing poses the people in the yoga videos could do. You know the ones I mean…where they fold themselves perfectly in half, or straddle their legs as sharply as a carpenter’s square.

Even when I stretched twice a day I still couldn’t see the sort of progress I dreamed of. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t do it. It actually bugged me - a lot!

That was until a few years ago when I was watching an episode of Dr. Oz. It was during the Q and A time near the end of the show when a young woman got up and began to talk about her hyper-flexibility. Dr. Oz asked her to show us, so she began bending and twisting her body into all sorts of crazy shapes. I looked on with both wonder and envy.

But then something unexpected happened. Dr. Oz asked the lady if she ever gets aches and pains in her joints. “Yes, Often,” the lady admitted. Dr. Oz then explained that this is common with people with hyper-flexibility. These sorts of people have to be especially cautious to avoid injuries like sprains and pulled muscles.

Hummm...

I thought.

I never get injuries like that.



I guess it's because...



my joints are strong.


That’s when it first occurred to me...

  
Maybe God made me this way for a reason.

 

I imagined God, knitting me together, and deciding it would be better for me to have strong joints, than to be overly flexible. Even though he knew I’d want to be limber, he felt it was better for me to be able to run, and hike, and play with my kids, and climb stairs, and do all the things I enjoy doing without ever having to worry about a sprained ankle or a pulled back.
 

He made me this way because he loves me.

I wondered how many other things about me that I don’t really like, are actually blessings in disguise. Could my big teeth and fat thumbs be a blessing too? Who knows? They could be.

How about you? Are there any things about yourself you used to want to change, but later realized were blessings in disguise? The size of your nose? The size of your yard? The size of your bank account?

As I get older I see more and more what a loving Father we have. He knows best, and his ways are so much higher and better than our ways.

Like it says in Isaiah 55…

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
 neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

So the next time you’re thinking…

Why couldn’t I be more like this?

 or

Why couldn’t I be more like that?

…don’t be surprised if the answer is as simple as this:

Because God loves you.