Blessing

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Ephesians 1:3

           "Blessing" has been defined as God’s favor and protection, but it’s more than that, even though it’s really hard to understand in this sin-cursed world. Sometimes, when I don’t understand something well, I look at its opposite and if I can comprehend that better, I just turn it around.

          A curse is the opposite of a blessing and after the fall, all of creation was cursed. Cancer, sickness, aging, and violence didn’t exist in paradise. Plants and animals were re-created to show the effects of the curse and since then, it’s been hard to focus on blessing.

          The jungle is a beautiful place with hundreds of species of orchids and a menagerie of colorful birds, but it’s exactly where I’d go to demonstrate the effects of the curse. There, most plants are poisonous, parasites are numbered in the thousands and all the bugs are big, and bite.

          In my opinion, the Bullet Ant is the personification of the curse. These terrible predatory creatures are just under an inch long and inflict a sting that is comparable to being shot with a bullet. On the 4 point Schmidt sting pain index, they are rated 4+. Someone on the internet described it as, “Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3 inch nail in your heal.” This description is a little melodramatic, but they nailed what it feels like.

          These ants are common in the jungle and wander alone so they are really hard to spot. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I really dislike these critters. One crawled up my pants leg and bit me three times before I could kill it. I hurt so bad that I couldn’t walk and had to crawl back to my house just using my hands.

          The extreme opposite of that is blessing. It is something planned for and perfected by God for the creation He formed in His own image. This is a far cry from having good luck or good fortune; it is everything good that God has given to a repentant sinner. The bottom line is this: Jesus Christ did not come into the world to bring us blessing …He is Blessing.