Skip to main content

Blessings

 

You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. (Psalm 128:2)

 

          Someone asked about what blessings I’ve received in the past week, and to be honest, I couldn’t think of any. Of course, I know that every breath we take, and every heartbeat is a blessing. I try to keep in mind that even the things that I don’t think of as blessings are probably blessings, but those aren’t really what the questioner is asking about. I could have mentioned my moonflowers, or the superabundant (from my perspective) harvest of fennel seeds that I’m trying to harvest to keep them from producing more fennel plants – and then use.

          Instead, I used the blessing of the topic of blessings to consider the nature of blessings. Some blessings are big, showy, exciting. They’re they things we usually think of when we think of blessings. Turning water to wine would be one of those sorts of blessings as long as you like wine better than water or if you were somehow obligated to come up with wine. It wouldn’t be much of a blessing for me, though.

          There are also what we might call recipe blessings. Today, this ingredient is added to your life. Tomorrow, something else is added. Two weeks from now, some heat gets turned on. It stays on for a month, and other ingredients are added. Eventually, you find yourself with a healthy, flavorful blessing.

          A similar blessing is the garden blessing. You put something aside, or perhaps even throw it on the ground as you walk along. You might or might not water it, but over time, there’s something growing in your life. You’re not sure what it is… or maybe you are sure, and it’s not something you want in your garden, like the lemon balm I accidentally planted (I’d meant to keep it in a container.) There’s now a lovely plot of the stuff in my neighbor’s back garden. Then you discover that you have a use for it, and suddenly, your “ugh” turns into a “Yay!”

          Another comment I came across today is the oft’ asked bit about how God can let bad things happen to His creation. But if it is through the bad thing that good is enabled to grow or take place, then even the bad thing may be a blessing. That’s part of the reason that I think of COVID-19 as a blessing. It has given me opportunity and motivation to grow as a person.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more