Tonight, we turn our clocks back 1 hour again. Tomorrow the sun will rise a little earlier, but it will then go and hide again earlier too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a massive storm during the night, and I woke up with rain coming down in buckets, the wind snapping at the trees. Recently I\u2019ve noticed that it is still dark when I get up. From my small first floor prayer room the trees on the far side of the park have disappeared\u2026 perfectly camouflaged against the dark night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today I got up a bit later, and I am happily surprized to see them again. Still some green in parts, clearly imprinted on the pure white cloud paper behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is this not what fear tries to do to us too? It wants to keep us in the dark, so that we no longer see heaven\u2019s wonders all around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll men receive blessing from God, and as a consequence owe Him thanks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the gratitude due, however, they fall far short.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some good things come anonymously, and are thus received unthankfully.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Other good things, God’s free gifts, are traced to some earthly source,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n and so produce no thankful feeling.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And then the multitude of life’s mercies, so obviously Divine,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n are yet so common that their origin is forgotten,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n and they are received as a matter of course.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n J.E. Henry<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like those trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commentator goes a bit further, and this touches my heart:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are no ungrateful Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once your heart has been blessed with the grace of salvation, an everlasting flame of thankful service is ignited, finding its way out in the world wherever and whenever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonah\u2019s praise song, his song of thankfulness from deep in the darkest insides of the fish in chapter 2, ends with these words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Lord commanded the fish to vomit up Jonah on the shore.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And it did.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonah 2:10 CEV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And I get thinking\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Am I still thankful for all the coincidental blessings I encounter every day, the magnitude of natural wonders that perfectly align and the immeasurable daily miracles around me and in me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing has changed just because it has grown dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when I have learned to be thankful even in the deepest, darkest places,<\/p>\n\n\n\n the fish will spit me out, just as he is commanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To there where the light is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your inspiration for the week: God You are<\/p>\n\n\n\n