There is an ancient story about the Divine couple in Hinduism. Shiva and Shakti are gazing down at the human race, many of whom are poor and miserable. Shakti sees a man walking who is bent over with hard labor, wearing sandals held together with rope. She turns to her husband and asks him to help.
"Can you drop a bag of gold on this man?"
"Dear one, I cannot," he sighs.
"How is this possible? You are the Lord of the Universe! You can do anything! This would be such a simple thing."
"Ah but he is not yet ready to receive such blessings."
Shakti begs her husband until he relents. Gently he lets a bag of gold slip down in the path of the tired man. His head is curled toward the ground in his exhaustion, as he worries about whether he can provide dinner for his family. He notices the lump in his way, and thinking it to be a rock he carefully steps over it.
"How clever of me not to stumble on this large stone. Surely I would have fallen and broken my sandals even more."
I wonder if there are masked miracles in our paths, that we assume to be obstacles. If only we would open them up and see the sparkle. It is my belief that God can and eagerly would shower us with benevolence. In fact, He does this every day.
