Silver Lining

So today, a random person inboxed me and was in need of my calligraphy services (for wedding cards). She wanted me quick, and so she asked for a sample of the work I had ever done.

I sent through, and to my disappointment, the bride (or groom—I don’t know which was the actual boss) told her that “This won’t do.” … My client is not in agreement, she said.

At some point, you might doubt your abilities or potential, but God made me look at the brighter side. This lady still reached out to me. My name reached her somehow when she was in need of a specific need.

Well, I gave thanks for that. I saw a good side to this. Someone had recommended me for the job well done. My name was being mentioned in rooms I hadn’t been to.

Sadly many of us do not have such a consoling or hopeful prospect in seemingly negative situations as these. But that’s what a silver lining means.

Joseph was hated, sold, accused, imprisoned, but…pharaoh finally dreamt, a thing Joseph alone could interprete. His story is hinged to the hate given by his 10 brothers. Now we all know the story. Famine hit the world 13 years later for 7 years, and Joseph was in control of the food available.

Guess who showed up? His brothers! But they could not recognize him!

If he hadn’t seen the silver lining in their selling him up to the slaves, if he couldn’t see the good that came out of it, that he was sent ahead to save them and his father from starvation, the whole orchestration of his life would have amounted to nothing.

While for Joseph that was the case, we learn to see the silver lining in any bad situation we go through, the good side, the good dot…

I am not saying all bad things are good or fair (like deaths), but we can’t fail to see something good in all of them. Your beloved could have died—but thank God they had been born again. My best friend died at 30, but I’m glad his sickle cells episodes could no longer mistreat him ever again (and yes we had believed for complete recovery)

Jonah was swallowed by a fish for three days, but if it hadn’t, a whole city would have been killed by God for having not repented.

May God reveal to you the silver lining in whatever situation you feel seems not to have any ounce of good in it. For indeed, if His word is true, then all things indeed (all, including the bad) work for our good—your good.

What that means is, even when the enemy meant it for evil, God is a master flipper. He’ll flip them tables back up, and the bad the devil sought to manifest, won’t fully reach its end goal.

That is just who our God is!

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Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Genesis 50:20-21 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.