Both
pictures are the same flower; The difference is water. When
the flower gets wet, it becomes transparent. In other words, you can
see right through it.
Interesting!
It occurred to me that human beings are something like this
unidentified flower. When we encounter adversity (like the flower and
the rain) or problems or perhaps even pain, the real you comes
out. I thought about this morning, when something quite unpleasant
happened, I found myself saying “come on” and when it repeated,
“Come on!” and when it happened still again, “Come
on!!!”
Forty
years ago, I would have responded with “colorful language”, but
today all I could say was “come on”. And, as I reflect upon my
life, I can see God working through every difficulty, every obstacle
and turning those things into something that changed my life for the
better, by changing ME!!!
In
the 1st chapter of Paul’s second letter to the
Corinthian church, I can see Paul thinking the same way. Looking at
his life and seeing how God was turning problems into things that
eventually worked out for something much better.
2
Corinthians 1 (World
English Bible)
1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy
our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the
saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies and God of all comfort;
4
who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort
those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God.
5
For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort
also abounds through Christ.
6
But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we
are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the
patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
So
the question naturally comes to mind: Are we changing??? Are we
thinking about our lives in such a way that we can see past the
adversity that comes our way and actually see right through it
to the goodness of God working in our lives?
I can and hope you can as well!!!