The so-called blessings of the world are at best hollow and at worst deceptive bait leading us into misery. It is not so with the blessings of the Lord. Even when His blessings look like curses, as in the cross, they are rich and powerful, and serve for our highest ultimate good. Our Lord’s blessing only gets better over time, for He is a God who saves the best wine until last. Meanwhile, His blessing causes even our current pain to work for our good (Romans 8:28).
The Lord adds only blessing to our lives. He adds no sorrow, but rather he is the only Comforter able to take sorrow away from us. When it seems that He adds sorrow and removes blessing, we do well to consider the thoughts expressed in Francis Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven, in which the poet has the Lord saying:
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home;
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!
22 The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.