Recognizing Blessings

This past week we received a great blessing from above: it snowed several inches Monday. We looked outside during our first break and saw the snow beginning to fall, and on our next break we saw it beginning to stick, and by the time we were done with sessions for the day it was really starting to pile up. It snowed all day and most of the night, with several inches accumulating in all.

We were sure to take advantage of this blessing with snowmen, snow angels, sledding, snowball fights, and an attempt at an igloo (the amount of progress made, however, did not justify the amount of effort required, so instead we ended up with an igloo ruin). After all we're largely a group of Southern boys and girls who don't see all that much snow, so give us some and we'll make the most of it

But many people don't get all that excited about snow. In fact a lot of people see it as commonplace or even an annoyance because they are so familiar with it that it's nothing special. My first trip to Ukraine it began to snow very hard during our New Year's party, and being a group largely from Texas we all went outside to play while the Ukrainians sat in the warmth and thought us crazy. After all, it was just snow.

One of the worst things that happens to us is that we become desensitized to the blessings God has given. We get so used to the great things God provides that we forget how fortunate we are to have them. A person from Canada would probably see the kid who didn't eat anything Monday because he spent every spare moment playing in the snow as being insane, yet, having spent his whole life in Miami, he was so amazed to see snow stick to the ground that eating never even occurred to him. He was completely overwhelmed by God's blessing.

If only we were so fully appreciative of God's blessings in our lives that we too would be completely overwhelmed by the great things He has done for us. How much more grateful, how much more humble we would be, how much more would we praise Him, if we truly realized the extent to which He has blessed us all and continues to bless us each and every day.