When God’s Gifts Don’t Feel Like Gifts

My mind restlessly processed a situation that hadn’t turned out the way I’d hoped. As my thoughts circled through a cycle of disappointment, confusion, and loss, some words broke into the fray.

“I’m giving you a gift. I know it doesn’t feel like a gift, but it’s a gift.”

Lysa TerKeurst had first spoken this thought into my life. Although I can’t remember the exact teaching, I do remember her taking listeners back to the garden of Eden where she highlighted an action of God that appears cruel on the surface but reveals a gift of kindness upon digging deeper.

In Genesis 2:9, we read of two specific trees in the garden of Eden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam and Eve they could eat of any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:16-17)

Well, we know how the story goes. They eat of the forbidden tree and their disobedience brought consequences, including expulsion from the garden, as described in Genesis 3:22-24:

“Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever–” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” (ESV)

The footnotes in my Bible comment that “the tree of life probably served in some way to confirm a person in his or her moral condition.” Eating of the tree of life after the fall would preserve humanity in a sinful, fallen existence FOREVER. Notice God can’t even finish his sentence after the word forever–. “For the man to live forever (in his sinful condition) is an unbearable thought, and God must waste no time in preventing it.”

You see, God desires for men and women to live eternally in perfection, not sin, so he took extreme measures to ensure lips could never taste of this tree until he restores Eden. (Revelation 2:7, 22:1-3)

To Adam and Eve, I imagine His action felt like a heartless punishment. Dare I say, like a cosmic joke. But framed through the eternal lens of God, their eviction truly was a gift of love and protection which set the stage for the ultimate gift of salvation and redemption that would come through Jesus.

In my case, I didn’t jump for joy upon hearing God’s Spirit affirm my discouraging situation as a gift. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t what I wanted. But, with time and perspective, I now see it’s proven to be multiple gifts. A gift of his protection. A gift of redirection. A gift of strengthening my hope and trust in a greater plan I don’t understand. A gift of drawing me closer to himself through my questions and hurt.

Since you’re human, I suspect God has given you some gifts you never registered for. The absolute last thing I want to do is trivialize your pain by saying, “look on the bright side…it’s a gift.” Sickness. Broken relationships. Loss of loved ones. Financial strain. Infertility. Miscarriages. Mental health struggles. These are gut-wrenching realities of our broken world completely worthy of tears and sorrow.

So, feel the grief but as you do, keep your eyes open for his presence, mercy, and love in the suffering. That, my friend, is the gift.