Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
I Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)
Have you heard “The Legend of the Chinese Farmer”? It goes like this.
Once upon a time, there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years.
One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically, “you must be so sad.”
“We’ll see,” the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it two other wild horses.
“How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed! “Not only did your horse return, but you received two more. What great fortune you have!”
“We’ll see,” answered the farmer.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Now your son cannot help you with your farming,” they said. “What terrible luck you have!”
“We’ll see,” replied the old farmer.
The following week, an army passed through and officials came to the village to conscript young men into service. They seized every young man in the village…except the one with the broken leg.
***
There have been many questions about the “anomalies” surrounding the 2020 election and its aftermath, and there is no time nor space to delve into those here. Many Trump supporters were crushed to say the least and had deep doubts about the health and continuance of our democratic republic and freedoms. However, since the historic 2024 elections, many are pointing out “we had to go through that to get to this.”
One Twitter/X user DC_Draino posted this on Nov. 15:
“We wouldn’t have Elon & Vivek slashing trillions of gov’t spending.”
“We wouldn’t have Gaetz exposing the Democrat election fraud machine.”
“We wouldn’t have JD Vance getting ready for 2028.”
“And we wouldn’t have Tom Homan organizing the biggest illegal alien deportation program in US history.”
“It was a brutal 4 years, but it had to happen this way.”
Ian Miles Cheong posted:
“Had [Democrats] not [won in 2020], we’d not have Elon Musk, RFK Jr., JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard and others onboard today. It all worked out in the end, and his next presidency is going to be greater than ever before.”
That prompted this response: “We also would not know the level of depravity Democrats would stoop to in order to jail Conservatives. A lady is in jail for praying on a street. J6s are in jail for being OUTSIDE the Capitol. What they did to Trump #lawfare unconscionable. We saw. We know. Big Changes are coming.”
And this one: “And now with the trifecta – White House, Senate & House, we can really MAGA whereas before Trump would have had to fight every step of the way.”
And this one from Twitter/X user Cynical Publius:
“God works in mysterious ways.
“It’s quite possible that the best thing that has happened to America in decades was Biden [winning] the 2020 election.
“Had Donald Trump won in 2020, he would have suffered an ineffective, COVID-plagued second term full of impeachments and “resistance,” and America would not have fully seen the lies, perfidy and treachery of the Democrat/Media Complex.
“Instead we had four years of a Biden administration where all of the evil in The Blob was laid bare for all to see. We learned how to stop the election cheating that Democrats have engaged in at least since the 1960 election. Over those four years Trump was able to put together a plan for a renewed Presidency, this time with the right people like JD, Vivek, Tulsi, Elon and RFK instead of the Deep State stooges he trusted last time.
“We are about to embark on an American revival that literally could not have happened had Trump won in 2020.”
In sum, we’re to “give thanks in all circumstances,” as the Bible says, and trust in the larger scheme of things, even when circumstances don’t seem to make sense to us or turn out as we like.
–Scott Dreyer