Blessings....

A few weeks ago, I heard a sermon that described blessing as a sign that God had orchestrated a marriage relationship. Since then, my mind has been thinking about the idea of blessing. What does it feel like to live a blessed life?
You often hear people talk about how they have been blessed with good health. What about those who have just been told that they have a terminal illness? Could this also be a blessing in disguise? Children are clearly a blessing.... (Psalm 127:3-5 Don't you see that children are God's best gift? The fruit of the womb His generous legacy? Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.) but what about those who cannot have children? What about the many families who have strained, even broken relationships with their children?

It seems like our consumer culture can easily distort the depth of the word blessing. We can easily see this as something that we get rather than the deep work that God does in our life. The deep areas where he gently calls us to Him. Blessing may look like tears swirling with the rain as you wrestle with dreams shattered on the ground. Blessing may look like the arms of Christ picking you up and giving you the fragile strength to stand up again and keep moving.

Certainly, blessing comes in those magical times when everything seems to come together. The joy of watching your near teen make their first basket in basketball. The miracle of new life being set upon your chest. The wonder of finding a house that gives a family a home, a sense of place.

I also know that I am learning to embrace those areas in my life that seem less like blessing, but that draw me to the unconditional love of a Father who sees more than this moment, but who is fully present in this moment.

I love this song by Laura Story: Blessings

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace Comfort for family, protection while we sleepWe pray for healing, for prosperity We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering All the while You hear each spoken need Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nightsAre what it takes to know You're near? What if trials of this life Are Your mercies in disguise? We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hearWe cry in anger when we cannot feel You near We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your loveAs if every promise from Your Word is not enoughAnd all the while You hear each desperate pleaAnd long that we'd have faith to believe'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears? And what if a thousand sleepless nights Are what it takes to know You're near? And what if trials of this lifeAre Your mercies in disguise? When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win We know that pain reminds this heart That this is not, this is not our home It's not our home'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears? And what if a thousand sleepless nights Are what it takes to know You're near? What if my greatest disappointments Or the aching of this lifeIs the revealing of a greater thirst This world can't satisfy? And what if trials of this life The rain, the storms, the hardest nights Are Your mercies in disguise?
[From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/l/laura-story-lyrics/blessings-lyrics.html]