Sing!

“Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands...” Psalm 100:1b

I do not praise God enough. We are surrounded by so much blessing and gifts that we take almost all of it for granted. On May 1, my sister and I took advantage of a promo from an online beauty portal. We had our lashes permed for the very first time...and last, I might add. The two hours we spent with our eyes closed was torture! Imagine seeing a constant, pervasive, grim blackness all your life! 

Jennifer Rorshack lost her sight when she was 15. She told an audience early this year to imagine waking up everyday in the dark. “I console myself with the fact that this is only temporary. I am in this world for a short journey. In eternity I will see as brightly as possible especially in the presence of the bright, very bright and luminous, Son of God!” 

Imagine what Jennifer and many other blind people would pay just to see for a day, a week, a month, a year, or to see till the end of their life. Imagine how much money we would be willing to give to have a healthy appetite, when all we feel when we see food, is nausea. We can’t put any monetary value on having our parents and siblings alive and well beside us. We can never be grateful enough. Just one cell, one tissue, one antibody, that runs amock in our body can be disastrous. 

In one of my favorite books, “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery, the main character is an impetuous redhead always getting into mischief. “Dear old world,” Anne Shirley murmured, “you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.” Anne Shirley had very little in life. She was an orphan and had been living in strangers’ homes, but she was born with an eager appreciation for the beauty of God’s earth. 

Father, may we always have a thankful heart for the bountiful richness of this earth and the brothers and sisters You have blessed us with!