My daughter recently asked me if I could harvest some dandelion greens from our backyard for her bunny. I told her: “Sure.”
Then I had a brilliant thought! “How about let’s do an exchange. I can give you dandelion greens for bunny, in exchange for you giving me bunny poo-pellets for my garden.” (How brilliant is that! … my very own free supply of garden “gold!”)
My strawberry plants will love the garden “gold!”
The blueberry plants growing in pots on the back deck will love the garden “gold!”
The raspberry plants will love the garden “gold!”
Here you can see the rest of the garden … anxiously awaiting planting time. The tomatoes will love the garden “gold!” The beans will love the garden “gold!”
Bunny poo-pellets are not something my daughter wants to have in her life.
But for me … it’s something which is very beneficial to me and my garden. I am very happy about her sharing with me that in her life which is unpleasant to her.
By the same token, dandelions are not something hubby and I want to have in our life. But for my daughter … dandelion greens are very beneficial to her and bunny. She (and bunny) are very happy about me sharing with them that in my life which is unpleasant to me.
It’s a give and take.
When it comes to life itself, we each have things in our life which are unpleasant to us: experiences from our past which we wish we didn’t have in our life … a hardship we are going through … a diagnosis we wish we hadn’t received … etc. etc. …
We don’t want these things in our life.
We view them as “ick.”
But what we don’t realize is that those things which we view as “ick” in our own life just might be the very thing which someone else needs.
Our experience of going through that painful thing in the past … the lessons we learned from that might be exactly what someone else needs as they work through and heal from a similar painful thing they also went through in their past.
That hardship we are currently going through … our sharing of that might be exactly what someone else needs, as they too navigate their own hardship they are going through.
That diagnosis we wish we hadn’t received … now that we are on the other side of it, that might be exactly what someone else needs as they too are dealing with their own diagnosis.
etc. etc. …
God can use all things for good … even the things we wish we didn’t have in our life.
“The God of all comfort comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” – 2 Corinthians 1:4
