Blessing In Disguise

It was a typical weekday for most people, but not for our family, and certainly not for me. Our business had gone bankrupt, my father was freaking out trying to find a way to break it to our suppliers that we could not pay them anymore, my sister was looking for a new job, my mom was seriously considering to start working abroad, and my younger sister and I were in danger of actually quitting school.

I walked down the stairs of our simple two-story apartment and found my dad sitting rigidly on our couch, clutching the phone in his hands. He had this tense look on his face and when he spotted me, his eyes narrowed. “We’re going away,” he said, sounding resigned. “Pack your bags because we’re leaving as quickly as possible. Your Aunt Linda’s gonna help us move.”

Surprised, I couldn’t do anything but simply stare at him. Move? Where? And move wasn’t the right word, I thought sadly to myself. We were going to hide.

My sister was asleep, and the older one wasn’t home, probably at the hardware store arranging some last minute details before we truly closed. And my mother, well, I didn’t know where she was.

I was only fifteen then, and couldn’t really grasp everything that was happening. Everything was changing so fast. I had always lived quite comfortably, and my parents had always been my source of security, this family had always been my source of security. My father always told me to put all my trust on God, and at times like these, when even my parents were freaking out, He was my sole source of comfort.

I grew up in a Christian home, born into a rich one, actually, but things happened and we ended up selling our home, car, and almost every possession. But that’s another story on its own. Anyway, we used the money to pay debts, then my dad and mom proceeded to use what was left of the money to build the hardware store. Business was good for the first five years, but then a huge mall opened up right outside our village, and soon another hardware store that was bigger than ours opened up. And after five hard years of intense competition, we finally had to close.

“Your Ma’s at the store too, helping your sister close up. She’s the one who talked with Linda.” My dad paused for a second to look closely at my face. “You okay?”

“Yup,” I told him, not really feeling anything. I started to imagine myself living in a whole new strange town, where we had… nothing. Nothing except God and each other.

I walked back up the stairs, then proceeded to lie in my bed, just thinking. Every five minutes or so our phone rang, and I fell asleep praying. I remembered saying, “Lord, you wouldn’t give us problems we couldn’t take. You permitted this, and so I know you’ll get us out, too. I won’t worry because we have You.”

A few hours later I woke up, and when I went downstairs, my dad was like a completely different person. The resignation, the tension I saw in him earlier was gone, replaced by a calm look, even a slightly happy one.

My sisters were there, my mother, too, and my dad spoke. “We’re not leaving,” he stated, looking firm. “I spoke with your Uncle Rody, and I realized it’s definitely wrong to just leave all our responsibilities behind. I am going to face the suppliers, and the Lord will help me. He will help us.”

As all of us continued to talk things through, my father said that he was glad that he had talked with my uncle for if not we would've ran away as was originally planned. My uncle told my dad that it was wrong of him to leave everything behind, not only because it would burden my father's conscience but also because our suppliers weren't stupid people, and they would surely try to hunt us down, or file a case against us. And thankfully, my dad realized that what my uncle said was right. The Lord surely used my uncle to make us stay.

Our overall debt with the suppliers was not less than three hundred thousand pesos, and I remembered that week clearly, where my father and mother faced every supplier, admitting that we couldn’t pay them anymore. It could have been a disastrous week, but God helped us through. Every day and night of that week we did nothing but pray, and one by one my parents talked to the different companies they owed. Some were incredulous; some outraged, others were just plain mad. They took what was left of our hardware store while my mom stood there, silently crying. But after all the high emotions, they told us that it was okay and if we ever decided to open another store again, they would help us. What they took didn’t come near to the amount that we owed them, but still they forgave us, and we believed that it was because God touched them and gave them merciful hearts.

It was one big answered prayer to another, with my sister getting that new job, my mom starting on a caregiver course, and my younger sister and I being able to go back to school and finish the rest of the year. But still, we didn’t have a steady income anymore, and our savings were slowly depleting, and there was a period when my father started to really get depressed, which rubbed off on me, too.

I had been pretty mellow through the whole ordeal, but when the time came that we didn’t know how to pay the apartment, and the bills, and how we can buy food anymore, I snapped. I saw my father start to call his friends one by one, asking for help, and his defeated demeanor started to get even to me.

I remembered locking myself up in my room and grabbing the Bible, just clutching it tightly in my palms. I stared out the window, tears streaming down my cheeks, heart breaking for my parents, for my sisters, for our whole family. I am on my wit’s end, Lord, I prayed, heavily depressed. Talk to me.

I cracked the book open at a random page, not knowing what to expect, and then there it was, staring right at me. The words jumped off of the paper, and it was so clear, so pure, that I started to cry even harder.

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

“And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

It was from Matthew 6, verses 25-30. The words “O ye of little faith” hit me the hardest, but in a good way. And suddenly I just knew it, felt it deep within my bones. Everything was going to be all right.

That feeling and faith did not fail me. God did not fail us. We got through a whole year living one day at a time, and we never lacked. When the needs came, there was always the supply that followed, most of the time miraculously. In fact, we managed to stay in our apartment, and managed to pay every bill, and a year later, we were better off than before. In fact, we were the only family in the whole apartment complex that always managed to pay on time, and our neighbors who had steady jobs got kicked out because they couldn’t. It was totally unreal.

My elder sister landed a job and got into good terms with the president of the company. One time when we had nothing to pay the apartment with we had a surprise call from her telling us that she had an increase in her salary and that she could advance some ten thousand pesos, which she wholeheartedly gave my father. As I have said, when the needs came, the supply followed.

My younger sister and I finished high school, and my mother went to Canada to work for her sister. As everything was happening there were always roadblocks along the way, but with every prayer, there was an answer. The Lord made it clear that He was the only One we could trust, and the only One we could depend on. We realized that in our ten years of working in the hardware we had unconsciously placed our trust on it, even our security, and that wasn’t right.

God also restored my father. Not long ago he was completely wrecked with everything that happened in his life, but now he’s a completely different person. He now moves through everyday life with zeal, and passion, and an unfailing trust in the Lord that no one could mess with.

I am now a twenty year old female that is soon to graduate with an advanced diploma in Information Technology, and I can truthfully say that our life is better now than it was before. Truly what had happened was a blessing in disguise. Every trial that we faced had changed us, changed me. We now know that the Lord only put us through that to shape our character for the better and to place us in a higher level in life. Through Him we were conquerors, for we have conquered.