Grateful Got Skewed

I have a wooden plaque on my door that says, "Grateful and Blessed". There is a large window in the upper half of the door, so the nail is under the window, right where my shoulder and bags can hit it while I’m walking in and out. This morning as I left, the little string from which it hangs was uneven. The plaque was skewed.

Our lives are like that, aren’t they?

The blessings are still there, but somehow our gratefulness gets knocked sideways. I forget to be grateful for Big Pharma creating drugs that help and focus only on the pain I still feel. I forget to be grateful for a mechanic that is patient and kind and only focus on the large bill I still have with him. I forget to be grateful for a warm and safe place to live and only focus on the fact that it’s electric heat and therefore expensive.

It’s all about perspective.

I think we can all agree that our lives and loss rarely compare to the life of Job. Whenever I’m depressed, I turn to Job, not because he had it worse but because God spoke, and it is so comforting to me that He is the same God now He was then.

Then the LORD answered job out of the storm. He said:

“Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” -- Melissa, darling Daughter, you don’t know the half of it. You don’t know what I’m doing.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked its dimensions? Surely you know!” -- Such arrogance, Melissa!

God proceeds to list, using rhetorical questions, some of the many things He does to sustain this universe: He tells the tide where to stop; He tells the sun when to rise and set; He is the source of the water of the oceans, the vast oceans!; He is the source of light; He holds the stars in place; He feeds the lions; He helps the mountain goats give birth on the heights; He gives the eagle his wings and helps him fly. Nothing humbles me like Job 38 and 39.

And it humbles Job, too, for he answers God: “I am unworthy. How can I reply to you?”

It reminds me that no matter what happens in my life God is the same. God is sustaining the universe, and me. Pain, lack of finances, more bills – the sun still shines, the eagles still soar, and the God who knows the name of every star knows my name, too.

Something to remember the next time your grateful gets skewed.