Divine Providence in our lives

A year ago a close friend of mine called me up to tell me that he and his family were leaving the city. Their son had just been born and their Manhattan apartment was too small and pricey. They had been searching for a house for a long time and had finally settled on a neighborhood in Long Island. They put a deposit on a house which they liked very much. The price was right – everything seemed perfect. They were already making plans to move. The bank had even approved them for a great mortgage.
 
At the very last minute the seller changed her mind for no reason.
 
The couple was very upset. They had spent months searching for a beautiful home and now they were not able to buy it. I told them that everything comes from G-d. There is Divine providence in everything that we do. Obviously they were not meant to have the house.
 
This week, a year later, my friend calls me up and tells me, “Rabbi you won’t believe it.” They ended up buying a different house a few months later and moved to the same neighborhood. This past weekend the house which they were supposed to buy suddenly had a major water leak from a pipe which burst in the basement. The entire first floor of the house had sunk to the ground. A girl living in the house was injured and is currently in hospital. Thank G-d they didn't buy the house. They have a one year old child – the results could have been catastrophic..
 
What seemed like something so bad turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Often in our lives we think that something bad has happened and it turns out that it’s the greatest blessing that could have happened to us.
 
This coming Saturday night is the 19th of Kislev. It is known as the Rosh Hashana of Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidus explains at length how there is Divine Providence in every step of our lives.
 
Every atom, every breath of wind, every grain of sand is tracked and guided by G-d. This is Divine Providence—the concept that G-d didn’t create the universe and then step back to let it run by itself, but that He remains actively involved, intentionally pulling levers, pushing buttons and flipping switches behind the scenes. We still have free choice to make whatever decision we want in our lives. One does not negate the other.
 
A man once saw a leaf fall out of a tree and drift to the ground. He asked the leaf, "Why did you drop out?" The leaf answered, "I don’t know—my branch shook me off." The man asked the branch why he shook, and was referred to the wind. The wind didn’t have an answer as to why he blew at the branch, except that he had been let loose by his angel master. The angel, in turn, told the man he had received orders from G-d Himself to get things windy. So the man posed the question to G-d, and was told: "Pick up the leaf." The man lifted it off the earth… to find a little worm sheltering in the shade the leaf created underneath. Everything—even the falling of a leaf—happens for a reason, and it is up to us and our minds to find or acknowledge the stewardship of G-d behind it all.
 
When Moshiach will come we will be able to understand and perceive how all the seemingly bad things that happened during the course of our lives were in fact a blessing in disguise. May we all be blessed to witness the Divine providence in our lives!!