Blessings in disguise.

One thing that God taught me when I was away was about blessings in disguise.

Two weeks before I was due to leave and finally come home a volcano in Chile erupted. In those last two weeks I was constantly scared that I wouldn’t be able to get home. By this time I was really missing home and the thought of not being able to get home made me feel sick. One week before I was due to leave, no flights at all were landing or taking off in New Zealand. Over the whole of New Zealand was a giant ash cloud.

I was supposed to be flying Trujillo to Lima, Lima to Santiago (in Chile) and then Santiago to Auckland.

My flight from Santiago to New Zealand was cancelled.

After trying to find a flight – any flight, the only thing that could be done was to just go to Santiago and figure it out from there.

I was supposed to have a visa to get into Chile which I didn’t have, but somehow they let me into the country. I spent about three or four hours at Santiago airport desperately trying to get home. Finally, the girl at the desk told me the next flight I could get on was in a week and it flew straight to New Zealand. I told her to put me on it; I just really wanted to get home! She looked on her computer and then told me that the last seat had been taken just two minutes before.

It was really hard not to just break down and cry at this point.

So instead, I was put on a flight that also left in a week, but flew Santiago to Tahiti, Tahiti to Sydney, and finally Sydney to Auckland. All up it was 27 hours on a plane. I really wanted to be on the flight directly to New Zealand, but I had to settle with this one.

It was so frustrating.
But it was God taking care of me, he knew so much more than I did.

The next day, the flight directly to New Zealand, the flight I was supposed to be on, was cancelled.

In those moments at the airport I thought God wasn’t listening to my prayers, when really He knew the bigger picture.

That was the first blessing in disguise.

The second blessing in disguise was my week in Santiago. In Peru I was so busy and going crazy with worry about getting home. When I got home, it was so overwhelming, and my days were filled with catching up with everyone. Santiago was God’s gift of rest. It was a week where I could just sleep, spend time with God and see the city. It was a really good week, and Santiago is a really cool city, now it’s one of my favourite cities. I am now really thankful that God blessed me with that week.

In the Narnia book The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, the protagonist Shasta seems to come across a lot of misfortune. It is not until Shasta meets Aslan does he see that Aslan has been working in his life in so many different ways.

Aslan says “tell me your sorrows”
Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. and then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the Tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had anything to eat.
“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.
“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.
“There was only one lion.” said the Voice.
“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two lions the first night, and -”
“There was only one, but he was swift of foot.”
“How do you know?”
“I was the lion.”
And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you as you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”

Aslan had looked after and protected Shasta the whole way, and Shasta didn’t even know.

Like Shasta, so many things which I saw as problems or inconveniences happened when I was overseas, but it was God taking care of me, He saw further than I did.

I made it home finally.

God gave me a huge adventure, and it was amazing. I saw so much, I learnt so much, I did so much. But the best part was that God was in every moment of that adventure.

Look.

Sometimes I doubt.

I begin to lose my sureness and I lose sight of God working in my life. 
I think I've lost sight.
Really, I have just closed my eyes.

And I need to reopen them. 
I need to open them and look around me.

I open my eyes and I see:

Golden light radiating so bright and so warm, giving life to everything it kisses.
Leaves that have internal pathways for water and life to reach it's very tips.
Stars that wink at me, full of mischief and mystery.
Blue eyes shifting to green overnight.
Pure white snow, glowing in the moonlight. 

I see all of these things, and so much more.

"for ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature." - Romans 1:20

One only has to open their eyes and see that nature, all of God's creation, is bursting with life and beauty. So perfectly and amazingly created, one cannot help but sense, feel that there must be more, must be a greater power.

My doubt is diminished every time I hear a heartbeat.

I know that He is the creator and the divine lifegiver of me.

Just take a moment to stop and look. To see the miraculous in the mundane things you pass by daily. To see the intricate design and beauty of them.

And soon you will realize that things will cease to be mundane. You will see the amazing, brilliant creation that God had moulded and shaped for us.
Notice more.

Just look.
And believe.