Turning curses into blessings

Deuteronomy 23:5 The Lord your God … turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

I see shades of Romans 8:28 in this Old Testament verse!  A curse, something bad, something difficult, something unpleasant, was turned into a blessing.  And the reason had nothing to do with how good the Israelites were, or with how much good they had done.  It was because the Lord loved them.  This love is a recurring theme throughout all of the history of the Israelites as recorded in the Old Testament and is carried over into the New Testament and into our own lives these thousands of years later.  I know this because of that well-known verse in Romans, but also because I have seen it in action in my own life so many times.  Things that happened that were devastating to me at the time have more often than not turned out to be for the best.  I remember the devastation of having to leave the ministry and friends I loved so much in Lebanon due to the war.  It was one of the most difficult experiences I have ever had, yet the move to Madaba in Jordan turned out to be a blessing full of great memories that I can look back on.  Later, a painful failed engagement for me and the terrible loss of a spouse for Russ meant that I was “free” to marry Russ, another wonderful blessing.  The pains of what seem like curses do indeed become blessings when God is in one’s life because “the Lord your God loves you.”