No Accidents!

Recently while weeding and fertilizing a bed of day-lilies and azaleas in our front yard I noticed a thick, snake-like weed protruding from the center of the bed.  I was just about to pull it up when I saw two small yellow flowers hidden under the lilies whose blooms had already come and gone.  As I moved the "weed" from under the lilies I could see a vine with big green leaves.  This was no ordinary weed.

K-boom!  I realized what the "weed" was and how it got there.   This was the result of my laziness last November.  Last fall my wife decorated our front porch with some pumpkins and I was supposed to dump them in the woods behind the house in late November, but I just let them sit in the azalea & day-lilie bed until they eventually disappeared.  So now we have pumpkins growing in the front yard!  A friend had the audacity to ask if I was going allow it to continue growing in the front yard.  Of course I am!  

Sometimes unintended consequences can be the biggest blessing.  If I had tossed the rotted pumpkins in the woods I probably would've never seen these results.  Now I've got the chance to grow pumpkins for the grands!  Have you ever experienced a blessing that was the result of a mistake, or unintended action? 

Three women in Scripture come to mind in this regard.  Isaac's mother, Sarah; Samuel's mother, Hannah and Mary, the mother of Christ.  All three women were surprised by something beyond their control.  All three were involved in childbirth miracles.  Each child brought blessing to their mothers and God.

My mother often reminds me that I was one of those unintended blessings!  All my life I knew I was an "oops" baby.  My parents lost a baby girl (Karen Lynn) several years after the birth of my older sister, Tracy.  I was not on the radar after my parents had buried their days-old daughter.  But God had different plans and I came along two years later.  One of the most affirming moments of my life came just a couple of years ago during my cancer treatment!  I was on the phone with my Mom and she recounted the day of my birth.  She told me how she didn't want me (the idea of another child so soon after burying an infant), but upon giving birth to me they placed me in her arms and she said she said, "at that moment you were MINE and I wanted you more than ever!" I don't have to tell you how that made me feel as a 50-year old man!  Never pass up the opportunity to affirm your children, regardless of their age!   The affirmation of a parent is a powerful thing.

God doesn't make mistakes!  How many times have we seen Him bring beauty from ashes, or joy from pain and miracles from our mistakes?  So the next time you realize, or receive an unplanned/unintended blessing celebrate what God has done, or allowed to happen.   And by the way,  according to the Apostle Paul you are no accident:

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.  This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.  So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. (Ephesians 1:4-6 NLT)