After our oldest daughter spent nine weeks in seventh grade, we realized her school was having a very negative affect on her and our family. A once model child had taken a turn in the wrong direction and there was not another school for her to transfer to. My wife did not like the idea of home schooling, but we knew we had to do something. With much prayer we enrolled our daughter in an on-line Christian school that had just started that fall. No one was very thrilled but all agreed to try this. We began with copious amounts of tears. At the end of the school year our daughter made great gains academically and spiritually. In retrospect, God gave us an amazing gift, but at the beginning it did not seem that way. It was a blessing in disguise.
As we journey through life it is not unusual for the Lord to give us blessings in disguise. In our story, Simon of Cyrene experienced a blessing in disguise. Luke 23:26 As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.[1]
Simon was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover and had travelled over 700 miles from Cyrene. Cyrene is located in Libya in northern Africa. At the time it had a large Jewish population. Put yourself in the sandals of Simon. You completed a long journey to come to the Passover Feast in Jerusalem. You see a large crowd gathered and are curious about what was going on. As you move through the crowd, you get a glimpse of a man carrying a cross. Jesus could no longer carry the cross, so a Roman soldier grabbed you and ordered you to carry it. By this time, you may be wondering why you had to get so close. As you carry the cross, it is very heavy and finally you get to the place of crucifixion. There the soldier orders you to put down the cross and you are free to go, exhausted and sweaty.
How did this affect Simon along his faith journey? Simon was the only person that was chosen to carry the actual cross of Jesus. If Simon became a believer in Jesus as his Savior, he would have reflected on carrying the cross as one of the greatest gifts he ever received. The Scriptures don’t give any more detail about his life and we don’t want to speculate.
As I write this, the world is suffering from Covid 19 and we could look at this as one of the worst things that could happen. Or could this possibly be a blessing in disguise. Is it possible that God will bring good out of a bad situation? Could God do something we could never think of?
The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” [2]
What is the Lord saying through this verse? If we take time to look, God will bring one blessing after another even from things like Covid 19. Only God could do something like that!
What blessings in disguise has the Lord given you and how did they affect you?
To hear more about Hope in the Last Hour, listen here: https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/hope-in-the-last-hour
[1-2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation . Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.