When Losing is Winning

Recently I entered a sweepstakes for a fake deer head. The shape was perfect, just like the one that used to hang in Grandma’s kitchen. An eight-point buck. But this one was white with pink antlers. Ideal for my bedroom. But I didn’t win.

Lest you think I’m crazy, I’ll admit I didn’t want to win. I had a bigger purpose in mind. One of my favorite websites, Zazzle, is running thirty days of giveaways. Every day you enter, the site puts your name in for the grand prize drawing, a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree.

I cringed as I submitted my name for this faux taxidermy deer. But the opportunity to get $1,000 of merchandise was worth the risk of having a deer head show up on my front doorstep.

Now as I occasionally shed a tear over minor disappointments in life, I think of that deer head, and I realize that God has a bigger purpose. This thing I’m down about was never His plan. Had I gotten my way, I might have discovered it was as unappealing as a deer staring at me while I slept. But there is a grand prize waiting, and it will be amazing

      “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  II Corinthians 4:17-18 NKJV