My wife Gretchen and I came from families of three children. When we got married, having three kids, was what we had in mind. Then we began having children and we had two boys. Now it was time for us to have a third child. What we didn't know was that we would try for that third child for about seven years. But it did not happen. During that time in our church there were about a dozen babies who were born and as Pastor and wife we would visit each of these newborns and their parents to celebrate with them in the hospital. We did this gladly. But you can imagine that our trip home after each visit might be difficult. We were happy for them but we were sad for us. We longed for a third child. We experienced brokenness.
But what we discovered in our situation is that there is a relationship between brokenness and blessing. A few years after this Gretchen found out she had cancer. What we learned about that cancer was that it was estrogen and progesterone fed. If you are pregnant you get a lot of that in your body. Which means that if she had become pregnant with a third child if would have fed the cancer in her body and made it much worse. It was a blessing not to have a third child.
Sometimes we see blessing right away. Sometimes we don't see blessings for years. Sometimes we may not see the blessing we think we need at all. Blessing is not necessarily that I get what I want from God. Sometimes blessing is having a greater understanding through the brokenness of who God is. That is the greater blessing. And in our situation, if we had not experienced the brokeness, we would not have seen the blessing of understanding in a greater way who our God is. There is a relationship between brokenness and blessing.
But what we discovered in our situation is that there is a relationship between brokenness and blessing. A few years after this Gretchen found out she had cancer. What we learned about that cancer was that it was estrogen and progesterone fed. If you are pregnant you get a lot of that in your body. Which means that if she had become pregnant with a third child if would have fed the cancer in her body and made it much worse. It was a blessing not to have a third child.
Sometimes we see blessing right away. Sometimes we don't see blessings for years. Sometimes we may not see the blessing we think we need at all. Blessing is not necessarily that I get what I want from God. Sometimes blessing is having a greater understanding through the brokenness of who God is. That is the greater blessing. And in our situation, if we had not experienced the brokeness, we would not have seen the blessing of understanding in a greater way who our God is. There is a relationship between brokenness and blessing.
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