I'm sure most of us would agree we have a lot to be thankful for, and every day is filled to the brim with blessings big and small, if we just know how to look. It can be hard sometimes to see them if we're not choosing to look, or if we're too busy to take time to smell the roses. Personally, I've been trying to observe "Thankful Thursdays" in my prayers lately, to train myself to stop and count some of those blessings that otherwise, I might just overlook.
I don't always remember to thank God for his gifts, and I'm definitely working on that. But this week, upon narrowly avoiding an academic crisis, I was struck with a new revelation.
How often do I thank God for the problems I don't see?
It's exam week, and for one of my courses this semester my exam was a one-on-one interview with my teacher. I had my interview time slot memorized and my mom dropped me off at the school a little under half an hour early. Tons of time. Too much time, really. But hey, at least I could get some writing done.
So there I am, nice and comfy in the cafeteria with my notebook and fabulous fountain pen, happily writing away. I had checked the time when I first got there but didn't check often after that. Half an hour was ages, after all. Right?
Naturally, I didn't take into account the fact that time goes like lightning when I write, and when I casually happened to check the time next, I was two minutes late.
Wait, what? TWO MINUTES LATE?
Heart pounding, blood pumping, dread swelling, I'm sure you can envision me throwing my book into my bag, slinging it over one shoulder and power-walking through the halls toward my classroom- the classroom I was supposed to be in ten minutes before my interview. I thought for sure I had blown it. That was it. Big zero. I had literally flunked my exam.
Now here's the awesome part.
When I got there, the girl before me had barely started her interview. No one had even missed me. I had to sit and wait.
Of course, things don't always work out that way, and it's easy to get hung up on the times when they don't. But it stopped me in my tracks to think about all the times, like this exam, when God has nudged things in just such a way to save me from a collision course with even the smallest calamities. That mug I dropped at work that didn't shatter. That bus I didn't miss. And then, the bigger ones, like that illegal right turn that didn't turn into an accident in driving lessons.
God is constantly at work in our lives, and his signature doesn't always look like gift-wrapped goodies. Maybe our biggest blessing today won't be the sunshine we see, but the rain we don't!
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