In the book, "The Hiding Place," a woman named Corrie and her sister, Betsie, are imprisoned in a concentration camp for helping Jewish families to escape the Nazi regime. At one moment during their imprisonment, they prayed together, and Betsie made a point of thanking God for the fleas in their living quarters. Corrie exclaimed that she could never be grateful for a flea! However, they later discovered that the guards stayed away from their room because of the fleas, giving them the freedom to read the scriptures aloud and encourage the other women they lived with. Corrie learned that one could indeed be grateful for a flea.
Although I don't live in a flea-infested room, I'm learning to give thanks for less-than-ideal circumstances in my own life. I can look back at just the past two years and find examples of inconvenient or difficult situations that turned into beautiful blessings for me.
One example involves a quasi-medical crisis. Around November of 2020, one of my uncles went into the hospital. He asked my mother to come and bring him back to my grandmother's house (he had gone to live with her after my grandfather passed away). Since they lived several hours away from us, we believed he had asked us to come because his condition was serious, so my mother and I made the nine hour trip to bring him home from the hospital, only to discover he was perfectly all right! We stayed another day, spending some time with my grandmother. I hadn't seen my grandmother in years, and I somehow thought ahead to bring my violin, so I got to play for her and make her smile. Less than two months later, my grandmother died suddenly of a heart attack. While my uncle's hospital visit may have been an inconvenient false alarm for us, it gave me the chance to make some final memories with my grandmother. They were all the sweeter because I didn't know they'd be the last.
The year 2020 brought difficult circumstances not only for me but for the entire world. COVID-19 and its variants affected every part of life: working, worshipping at church, shopping for groceries, going to school, spending time with friends, and for many, including myself, dating. I had been single for a while, but I was finally ready to begin dating again. Then the world shut down. Could there be a more difficult time to meet new people? I decided to try online dating (at the suggestion of my mother, believe it or not!). In December of 2020, I connected with the man who would become my husband. We lived several hours apart and studied different fields at different universities; we would never have met apart from the internet.
In both of these stories, I've been blessed to see the ending. As annoying as an "unnecessary" trip might have seemed, I can look back and be glad that I got to spend quality time with my grandmother before she passed. Dealing with a world turned upside down by COVID-19 was stressful and discouraging, but I can look at my husband and remember that God used a pandemic to bring us together. However, I know that not all trials will display their purpose in this lifetime. Betsie did not survive the concentration camp. Yet, she had faith to thank God for the fleas before she saw His work through them. Her story is a reminder to me that I can trust that God will work through my suffering, and I must learn to thank Him for the fleas.
Image Credit: Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay (image modified)