Gifts we think we dont want

I totaly stole this blog from here - but it blessed me so, I had to share.

I came across this quote in one of my Advent devotional books (Watch for the Light) the other day and it made me stop and think:

This is often the way God loves us: with gifts we thought we didn't need, which transform us into people we don't necessarily want to be.

~William Willamon, on December 14

I really do want to be transformed into a person who reflects Jesus to the world around me, so I'm not sure about the second part of that quote. But I do agree that the ways in which God molds and shapes me and loves me are often through circumstances I'd rather do without.

And yet.

The hardest times in my life have been the sweetest gifts God has given me. Because the heartache and turmoil and pain and sorrow was worth the growth and intimacy with him that came from it. I can say with certainty (knowing myself--and my mother would agree) that I would not have learned some of those same lessons if the circumstances hadn't been so extreme. Often hard lessons are the ones we learn best.

So why have I been resisting the circumstances I've found myself in lately?

In a weird way, it's been familiar and even oddly comfortable to be back in a place of total dependence, of desperation, of crying out to God for his mercy and love and presence. Though the circumstances are different, the center of these circumstances is a safe place I've been before. 

What would happen if we regarded our hardships, our trials, our disappointments as gifts? Gifts from a faithful and loving Father for our good, not for our harm. Gifts to give us a future and a hope. Gifts to transform us into the image of his Son, whom he loves.

Thanks for sharing your heart Joanne.