How Rich Are You?

"They must be rich!"  Those were the words my friend's 6 year old daughter exclaimed as she looked at a house covered in bright Christmas lights.  I couldn't help but remember that story as I prepared this week's blog post.  My friend and her family are blessed with a large beautiful home in the country.  Each day as she drives her girls to school they pass a house that is in great disrepair.  This particular time they were driving by the house at night and what they saw was an unbelievable number of colored Christmas lights adorning the house and  illuminating the night.  As the child looked at the house she gasped with wonder, "Look, Mommy!! I wish we lived in a house like that !! They must be rich!"

Of course, my friend turned this into a teaching moment, but it  is a teaching moment for us too this Thanksgiving. We look at the way people around us are blessed and often fail to recognize how God has blessed us. 

I am reminded of the account from Joshua 3-4.  God told the Israelites that they were to cross over the Jordan River.  He told them the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were to step into the water.  Upon doing this the water, immediately began to back up allowing the whole nation of Israel to cross the Jordan on dry ground.  God told Joshua to have a representative from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to collect a stone.  According to God's instructions Joshua set up the 12 stones to serve as a remembrance of what God had done for them.  We don't set up stones of remembrance-but we need to remember.

Several years ago I took a Bible study where the teacher had us draw a time line from the time of our birth to the present.  Along this time line we were to note important events, successes, difficult seasons, etc.   In doing this I  was able to see the finger print of God interspersed throughout my life.  His presence was there in my life even before I became a Christian, even when I wasn't walking with Him, even when it seemed He was far away.  This activity helped me see that all of us act on what we remember the most-if we remember the hurts and disappointments they can manifest themselves in physical problems or missed opportunities. Focusing on these negative things can also cause us to fail to see the amazing blessings of today. 

"Praise the LORD!  Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good!"         Psalms 106:1

This Thanksgiving let's take a look back over our lives and see the blessings of God's Hand at work.  Let's see our hardships, failures and  times of sadness and loss with a new perspective. Let's not fail to remember the blessings we experience daily.  Each week I encourage my Sunday School class to list at least one thing for which they are thankful.  I do this because we tend to take things and people for granted and we forget to be thankful for that which happens in our lives as we are wrapped in our daily course of events.  If we recognize our blessings, I believe that we will  see our lives  be completely transformed as we truly become grateful people. 

So today let's realize we too "must be rich", for we have been greatly blessed by the King of the Universe.