How do you feel when you get an unexpected gift? 😅 Excited? Grateful? Special? Loved?
It’s usually a blend of these emotions for the most of us, and I experienced my fair share of this recently when someone gave me a gift. I received it with so much joy, appreciated it, checked it — then realised that it wasn’t something I needed and moved on without really attaching much importance to it.
Then one day came when that same gift became exactly what I needed. Without it in that moment, I would have gone through a lot.
The gift helped me in a way I could not have predicted at the time I received it, and I remember sitting there thinking about how close I came to dismissing something that eventually became so valuable.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights…”
James 1:17 (KJV)
This made me think about how God works in our lives. Sometimes, He gives us things ahead of time, not because they make sense in the moment, but because He sees what is ahead.
The problem is that we often judge His gifts based on our current understanding, forgetting that God does not operate from our perspective. So we complain, compare and become disappointed.
All of this because what He gave us does not look like what we asked for, while completely missing the possibility that God may already be placing provision in our hands before the need even arrives.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
Isaiah 55:8 (KJV)
Not every gift from God comes wrapped in a shiny wrap. Some come as opportunities you almost overlooked, people you underestimated, instructions you did not fully understand, or seasons that seemed inconvenient at first.
Yet many times, when you look back, you realize those very things carried the help, wisdom, or preservation you needed for where you were going.
God never gives unnecessary gifts. If He allowed it into your life, then there is purpose attached to it, even if you cannot see it clearly yet.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…”
Romans 8:28 (KJV)
So, maybe this is your reminder not to discard things too quickly. Don’t rush to reject what does not immediately make sense, and don’t become frustrated because it doesn’t look like the answer you imagined. Sometimes the gifts that seem smallest today become the very things that sustain you tomorrow.
When the moment finally comes, you may realize that God was preparing you long before you understood what He was doing.
Shalom!
So true!