This morning while in meditation I thought of a story a friend had sent me this past week titled “All is not as it seems.” The story was of two angels who had come to earth. The older more experienced angel was to teach the younger angel a few things while helping two families.

The first family lived in a beautiful house finely furnished and well kept. The angels knocked on the door and asked if they could have accommodations for the night. The man of the household said there was nothing available in the house but they could stay in the shed out back. So the angels spent the night in the shed on dusty unclean floors. Upon waking and getting ready to leave the older angel left an offering of thanks for the people who had allowed them to stay for the night.

The younger angel asked “What are you doing? These people only offered this old shed when they had a house full of unused bedrooms and they did not offer one. Why leave them a gift?”

To which the older angel answered “All is not as it seems.”

The next night the angels came to an old farmhouse. They asked the elderly couple who owned the farm if they could stay for the night. The couple graciously invited them into the house fed them supper and gave them their personal bed while they slept on the floor of their living room because “Farmers need to be up early to care for their livestock and farm.” When the angels arose the next morning they found the couple at the breakfast table sad and grieving. When the younger angel inquired as to what had happened. The old farmer replied that their only cow had died during the night and now they did not know how they would make it.

This made the younger angel angry and when the two angels left, the younger angel asked the older angel “How could you possibly allow that to happen? Their only cow! Especially when the rich people in town had not been kind to us and you left them with a present. I don’t understand how you could do such a thing?”

To which the older angel said “All is not as it appears. You see the rich couple we met yesterday are about to lose everything. It was the last night they would spend in the house and they did not know it. As for the older couple the angel of death came last night to take the farmer’s wife but I convinced the angel of death to take the cow instead of his wife. So you see all is not at it seems.”

Reflecting on this story made me think of the Law of Allowing. The younger angel was learning the lesson of the Law of Allowing which is allowing things to be as they are because we don’t or can’t see the bigger picture. There is a mystery to life, one in which we can’t possibly know the full picture. I know I struggle with the Law of Allowing. Does it mean I just give up and not care? Does it mean to stand by and just let bad things happen if I can do something to help? No, I don’t think so. At the same time I am limited to what I can do and what I know of the complete picture.

As I continued to meditate I became aware of a new perspective. The Law of Allowing means allowing things to be just as they are WITHOUT JUDGMENT — not just as they are with regret or upset or anger. This is hard. I am like the younger angel thinking so many things are unfair and unkind. How can this or that have happened?

I must confess I often feel helpless as if I can’t make a difference. What if my job is to STOP passing judgment as though I can see EVERYTHING and UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING and therefore know best solution? My job is to do the best I can with the knowledge I have in the moment. You see if I think something is unfair like the farmer loosing his cow when it could have been his loving wife of 50 years, then I’m judging wrongly. Loosing the cow is not as it seems. The Law of Allowing is much more than just letting things be as they are. It means not being attached or upset with any particular outcome. It means not thinking anything is wrong to start with or to start catching the “wrong” thinking and letting it go.

Many times I think it is our job to do the best we can with the information we have. And here comes the hard part. TRUST! Trust there is a Higher Power at work. Trust all is not as it seems. Trust that doing the best I can in the moment is enough. TRUST in the Divine. TRUST that All is not as it seems.

Where are you making judgments based on your limited point of view? Where are you not trusting? What would life be like if you allowed it to be just as it is? Ponder that today — maybe even this week and let me know what you learn. I would love to hear your insights as well.