Blessings: The Meaning Behind My Tattoo

I got a tattoo today.  It is the word “Blessings” with the date, May 31, 2009. That was the day I had two seizures and was diagnosed with viral encephalitis, a brain infection. The brain infection was a huge trial in my life. I spent eighteen days in the hospital and I had to give up doing ministry for the summer and several other plans. I was closer to death than ever before. For a while we were unsure how much brain damage the infection would leave me with. It was a scary and trying time for me and my family.

But the word “blessings” is significant too. Because through that experience, God taught me that even in the midst of trials, his blessings are ever present. God’s blessings for his children are everywhere and in everything. Even in the midst of the infection there were blessings. It happened with only nine days left in the school year so I did not get behind. We lived within a half an hour of one of the best hospitals for neurology. The seizures were a blessing because they showed us that something was wrong. The infection may have gone on unnoticed without the seizures and ultimately could have taken my life. Even in the midst of a big trial, God was blessing me in many ways.

More blessings flowed after leaving the hospital. Because we caught it so early, I suffer from very little side effects of the infection. Though there is scarring on my brain, I live a normal life. Other people with the same infection suffer from epilepsy or memory loss as a result. I do not suffer from any major side effects. The complete healing that came by God is a huge blessing in and of itself.

As I result of the infection, I rediscovered many other things I was blessed with. I realized how blessed I was with a good family. I realized how blessed I was to be alive. I began to be so much more thankful for these smaller blessings that I had never really been thankful for before. And as a result of all of this, I did a lot of maturing in the summer of 2009 as I learned to be thankful for the many blessings God had given me that I had never thought about before.

I heard the worship team singing, “You give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name,” right before I had my first seizure in the church bathroom. That song so describes what I went through that summer. Though God took away that summer, there were still blessings through it all. And even though he took away, he gave back and in a greater abundance of blessings than before. I had the chance to get angry with God and stop trusting in him. But instead I trusted him in the middle of the storm and blessed his name anyways.

Through it all, God taught me so much and blessed me so much. May 31, 2009 brought on one of the biggest trials of my life. But through that trial, God brought a blessing. Sometimes the trials of this life truly are the biggest blessings in disguise.