But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. (2 Kings 5:11-12)
Placed before you on a silver platter are: 1)Ten thousand dollars in a dirty old sock and 2) a thousand dollars wrapped up in a box with a bow on it. You can only pick one. Which one would you choose?
I’m sure the majority, if not all, would choose to take the ten thousand dollars despite the packaging it was presented in. Wouldn’t you say that someone is downright foolish for bypassing that amount of money just because it was in a dirty sock instead of beautifully packaged in a box?
Not quite what we expected
But sometimes we can be just as foolish when it comes to God’s blessings. We ask for God’s divine intervention in our lives but because his ways do not look quite the way we expect, we can miss experiencing his hand at work. Naaman almost did when he approached the prophet Elisha to seek healing from leprosy. Elisha’s instructions were not what Naaman expected. In today’s lingo, our focal verse might have sounded like this: “Wash in the dirty waters of the Jordan? Are you crazy? And by the way you are not even Elisha! I came to see him and he doesn’t even have the decency to come out and see me himself!”
Naaman was about to reject his blessing of healing all because it did not come packaged as he expected. After the last post about laughing with hope of seeing God doing the unthinkable, I continued to place before God big issues in my life that were well beyond my reach. And God continued to demonstrate to me that He is able to do immeasurably more than I can conceive or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). But I almost missed out on one of His blessings because it did not come packaged as I expected.
His ways are not our ways
Like Naaman, I expected a far grander way of God providing. Things didn’t transpire the way I thought they would. In fact, I delayed making some steps because in my mind this would not be the way God was going to answer my prayer. I was not keen on the option being presented to me. So I chose to ignore this option to wait for God to reveal another answer in a big dramatic fashion.
But God made it very clear that He had chosen otherwise. He quietly provided using individuals He had selected to be His vessels to bless me. I almost missed it because I was bent on the answer being delivered in a certain package.
Is it possible that you are waiting for an answer from God but are caught up in what the outward appearances should look like? Could you be challenged like Naaman or myself to see what God has put in front of you as his provision? Are you about to miss out on what He has for you just because the externals aren’t attractive or match your expectations of what an answer from God should look like?
Choosing gratitude as our response
Thankfully I did accept what God provided as His answer to my prayer. However for a while I was stuck in disappointment because of how He answered my prayer. But the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and heart to see how I was being unappreciative for what God had done all because of the undesired packaging of my blessing. And after repenting of my foolish behaviour, only then could true gratitude find its rightful place in my heart and my mind.
We never know who or what God may use to bless us. Our blessings may come from the hands of those we least expect. Our blessings may come through challenging circumstances that are uncomfortable and seemingly unfair. But who are we to tell the Father how to bless us? Is it really that important for our blessings to come wrapped up in exciting beautiful packaging to our liking? Or will we simply be excited to see how God provides through unexpected ways?
May we choose to walk through this life not so concerned about how our blessings are packaged but more thankful that we have a Father who loves to bless us in the first place!
Considerations 