With blessings overflowing

French Doors!

– A Karen Blessing

So. . . blessing for the day?  Having a handyman husband who can do just about anything, including put up french doors in the living room (get ’em while they last, Home Depot, half price.  But you have to find your own installer!)  And you ask what am I seeing?  A savings on our heating costs, as the fireplace heat can be kept in the living area instead of
going to the upstairs when it is not occupied, and wonderful prisms because of the beveled glass panels!

The New French Doors - thanks to Karen's husband and a sale at Home Depot

From Sig – Karen’s husband’s ability to fix/build anything is truly amazing. From building a giant Stanley Cup to  figuring out how to get hotter coffee out of a coffee maker – there’s nothing he won’t attempt.

A Book Blessing Guarantee

– Another  Karen Blessing

I have just finished “Messiah” by Marjorie Holmes. It’s an older book, published in 1987, and follows “Two from Galilee,” about Mary and Joseph, and then “Three from Galilee,” a biographical novel that tells a story of what it may have been like for Jesus to have grown up amid His earthly family.  “Messiah” starts with Jesus’ calling of the disciples, and is a fascinating account of the most outstanding man to walk this earth.  It is a compelling book, not exaggerated, but vivid, with wonderful descriptions of people He associated with.  We in North America are blessed beyond abundance to have access to writing like this.  Read it (although best done in order):  I guarantee a blessing!

Am I ready to see everything as a blessing?

– A Sig Blessing

Over the past few days I had been thinking about how I would define a blessing.  I am aware of the Dictionary.com definition which includes “a favor or gift bestowed by God, thereby bringing happiness”. These kinds of blessings are pretty easy to identify, we just need to be looking for them.  However, would I be strong enough in faith to be thankful for the rough-edged events (or the people) that come my way?

As God likes to do, He challenged me with the words of Henri Nouwen yesterday – which “just happened” (another one of those Divine coincidences) to be the devotional thought my Executive Director chose to read prior our staff meeting yesterday:

The Spiritual Work of Gratitude

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives – the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections – that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.

Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see  in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

Henri Nouwen

January 12  Bread for the Journey

Let me have the courage to look at everything as a gift.