Unimaginable blessings

Lately, the beautiful weather here in Minnesota has been just perfect. Warm, sunny days with low humidity, and every few days a deep, soaking rainshower comes along to water the gardens and lawns. This is what we dream of in deep winter when we shiver, fingers icy as we start our cold cars.

But I don't want to talk too much about weather....

I was sitting in our patio the other day, enjoying the coolness of the morning sun, eating a really juicy white peach, and thinking about unimaginable blessings. Unimaginable... what does that look like? Each of us has our own idea of unimaginable; mine would look different from yours.

For example, eating that deliciously fragrant peach is an unimaginable blessing to a starving child. They have no idea a fruit like that even exists, and eating one would be outside the realm of their possibilities.

I am surrounded by unimaginable blessings. If you're reading this, most likely, you are too. Open your eyes to see these inconceivable things; imagine being brought here from a cardboard shack in some third world slum and being inundated by this wealth.

We may not think we're wealthy in material ways -- after all the economy stinks, and jobs are scarce. But we are wealthy... even the "poor" of this nation live in unimaginable wealth when you compare it to the poor of many other nations.

I watched a TV show that interviewed several people "living in poverty" in the US, and they also showed their homes/apartments. What struck me is that our definition of poverty is so skewed.... They had MANY material items; in fact, one man had a wall full of what looked like VCR movies and CDs.

For a family of five to qualify for free school lunches, the maximum wage earned has to be below something like $45,000 a year. Wow. We are a blessed nation indeed.

I'm sure in my sheltered life I haven't seen everything there is to see about living in poverty in the US. I know that. When you compare the poor here to the wealthy, the chasm is pretty deep... but not as deep as it could be.

This isn't an economic rant... I am just overwhelmed at the amount of good things that surrounds me, and want to be grateful for it, and never to take it for granted. I need to remind myself that I AM RICH, materially, and spiritually. Thank goodness I have a Creator to whom I can be thankful.

How are you surrounded by unimaginable blessings?

"Get rich quick; count your blessings." (Church sign here in St. Francis)