There was a king in Africa who had a close friend that he grew up with.
The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred
in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, “This is
good!”

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition.  The
friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had
apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns,
for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb
was blown off.

Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, “This is good!”

To which the king replied, “No this is NOT good!” and proceeded to send
his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have
known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their
village. They tied him to a stake surrounded by wood.

As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king had
but one thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less
than whole. They untied the king and sent him away.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his
thumb and felt so very badly about his treatment of his friend. He went
immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. “You were right”  he
said, “it was good that my thumb was blown off.” And he proceeded to tell
the friend all that had just happened. “And so I am very sorry for
sending you to jail for so long.  It was bad for me to do
this.”

“No,” his friend replied,  “this is good!”

“What do you mean, ‘this is good’! How could it be good that I sent you,
my good friend, to jail for all this time?”

“If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you – and eaten!”

Mother’s father worked as a carpenter. On this particular day, he was building some crates for the clothes his church was sending to some orphanage in China. On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his glasses, but they were gone. When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he realized what happened; the glasses had slipped out of his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut. His brand new glasses were heading for China!

The Great Depression was at it’s height and Grandpa had six children. He had spent $20 for those glasses that very morning. He was upset by the thought of having to buy another pair. “It’s not fair,” he told God as he drove home in frustration. “I’ve been very faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, an now this.”

Several months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in the United States. He wanted to visit all the churches that supported him in China, so he came to speak one Sunday at my grandfather’s small church in Chicago. The missionary began by thanking the people for their faithfulness in supporting the orphanage. “But most of all,” he said, “I must thank you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the Communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying everything, including my glasses. I was desperate. Even if I had the money, there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along with not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my coworkers and I were much in prayer about this. Then your crates arrived. When my staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top.

The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in. Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued: “Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been custom-made just for me! I want to thank you for being a part of that.” The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent overseas. But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way.

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 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 their 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 farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave her the cow instead.

Things aren’t always what they seem.” Sometimes this 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 some time later.

God sees all sides of the picture while our Earthly view is very limited.