the.com/blessing in disguise

means A setback that turns out, only in hindsight, to have been good for you after all.

from A phrase built from ordinary parts rather than one person's coinage — 'blessing' from Old English bletsian (to consecrate, make sacred or happy) and 'disguise' from Old French desguisier (to change one's guise or appearance). The exact phrase 'blessing in disguise' emerged in English religious and moral writing, with an often-cited early use in a 18th-century hymn or verse reflecting on providence — the idea that God's gifts sometimes arrive wearing the mask of misfortune. The precise first use is uncertain, but the sentiment is old: hardship reinterpreted, after the fact, as hidden mercy.