One of my favorite stories, This is good....

This Is Good

The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off.
Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!"

To which the king replied, "No, this is not good! Are you making fun of me, or what? I am minus a thumb, it hurts and is bleeding like crazy, and you say it is good? To prison you go and then you can see how ‘good’ it is," and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting again in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some
wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.

As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. “This is a bad Omen, a bad sign, let’s get rid of him quickly!!” they said. So untying the king, they chasedt him away.
As he was happily running home he looked at his hand with the missing thumb, saying “It is good, my friend was right! This is good!”

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.

"You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long.
It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "This is good!"

"What do you mean, 'This is good'?

How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"

"If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you and I have both thumbs…." His friend answered.

So remember, “This is good”! Whatever happens is for your good, for all , ALL things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28), even if at the moment it seems terrible what happened! So you can “be thankful for everything,” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, Ephesians 5:20 ) because you trust God, that whatever He does, it is for the better, and He doesn’t let anything happen to you, unless it is somehow good for you…. Just wait and look for the good; and you will see ….. This is good!