Count Your Blessings

The past few days have been some of those days.  The kind that, from the world's view, look pretty dismal. The pastor at our Protestant church gave a sermon last week focusing on the bible verse Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.  He pointed out that when you can't see God in the circumstances of your life, He hasn't gone anywhere.  If your focus is divided between something else and God then He starts to become a bit fuzzy.  People who have pure hearts, whose hearts are focused first and foremost on God, tend to be able to see God in everything.  He wasn't stating that this is always the case (look at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and her dark night of the soul).  I do think God sometimes hides His plans and purposes from us.  But I thought the sermon was good food for thought because we can do this to ourselves too.

Jesus and I had a little conversation yesterday about how the week was going thus far and it went something like this...

So Jesus, the kids and I were really looking forward to spending the afternoon at Mom's house Friday, so what's up with our van breaking down on us?  I mean, it couldn't have waited one more day?  It's been busy around here and the break would have been nice...
Yeah, I know you guys were looking forward to it, but the van door really needed to be fixed, it was either that morning at your house or Sunday morning at church and I figured you'd rather have it break on your terms.  It was done a day ahead of schedule so you could have the van back before the end of season soccer awards program.  They even fixed the recall notice issue with the spare tire while they were at it.  I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted that tire falling off as you're driving down the highway.  Besides, I made sure everything was covered under the extended warranty so you didn't have to pay for anything.  Speaking of money, I did send you that $100 medical refund check this week...

Oh yeah, right, thank you for that.  The extra money helped cover our grocery bill this month.  But back to Friday...so what was up with Grandma and Grandpa's sewer line breaking?  I mean, Dad works pretty hard as it is and that was a pretty rough job.
I know your Dad is a hard worker, and he and your uncle did an excellent job digging up and fixing that line in record time.  They thought it might take a few days and it only took one.  Again, the line needed fixing and I chose spring over summer or winter.

So I suppose it would be easier to dig up a line when it wasn't crazy hot or the ground was frozen, but still!
Amy, you know I don't tell you any story but your own, and your Dad has his own story too.

Speaking of my Dad, it was really nice of him to come over and take the dementia raccoon out of my backyard Tuesday morning.  I'm not sure what I would have done without his help.  Lord, considering everything else I was dealing with, well, couldn't you have sent it to the neighbors' house?  Or better yet, to not have it sick in the first place?  The person who raised Lazarus from the dead could have easily healed one little raccoon!
I hold everything in my hand, and it was that raccoon's time to go.  I sent it to your house because your dogs are up to date on their vaccines and the neighbors' dogs are not.  Plus, I knew you and your Dad could handle it and they would have had to pay the $180 to pest control to take it off their hands.  I made sure to keep it away from your dogs and kids.  The raccoon was so sick it was unconscious, which kept it from more pain and made removing it safer and easier.

Moving on...I'm sure You're aware that same afternoon was the day of the Moore, OK tornado.  An elementary school?!  To the one who said "let the little children come unto me"?  You couldn't have delayed that storm a week or two so those kids would have been on summer vacation?  Jesus, you know I trust you, but I've got to admit You're not winning any popularity contests with this, where were you Tuesday afternoon???
Again, I hold ALL things in my hand and you well know where I was that afternoon, I was right there with them.  You know I never promised you that there would not be trouble in your life, but that I would never leave you to walk through it alone.  I didn't leave them to walk through it alone either, all of them are precious to Me.  As for the children who died, rest assure they are all with Me now, more alive than they ever were on earth.  Continue to pray for their families through this time and I will be there to comfort them too.  Take heart, I make all thing new and I will renew them also, in My time.


Lord, please continue to be with all the people in Oklahoma who have lost so much.  Give them wisdom, strength and courage in the days, weeks and months ahead of them as they recover from this storm.  Please help me to remain focused on You and remember to count my blessings ~~ Amen.