Blessings

Singer/songwriter Laura Story song, “Blessings” chorus says beautifully, “What if your blessings come through raindrops, what if your healing comes through tears, what if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near? What if trials of this life, are Your mercies in disguise.”

Blessings come in all sorts of shapes and sizes-and sights and sounds.

They’re everywhere. All the time. All around us. We may not notice them.

But they are there.

If you or anyone you love has ever been sick, hurt, or disabled, you may have already witnessed many of these blessings. I like to call them little reminders that God is with us-in everything-EVERYTHING-and He sees us, and hears the cries of our hearts.

In the midst of my daughter’s “phases” of recovering from her recent surgery, she still continues to amaze me. I know it is her voice telling me things she is thinking and feeling, but I know that I know it is the Holy Spirit speaking through her amazing body, to comfort me, and show me multiple blessings.

After her second casting this week, she was scared and in pain…and said to me in her twelve year old voice, “Mom, I might cry when I say this to you….but I am proud of myself.” And I was the one crying. In the middle of probably the worst pain she’s ever had, and the struggle between her thoughts and her body, she said exactly what was on her mind. And she is proud.

And it makes me proud.

It was my little blessing of the day.

You see, if you are in too much of a hurry of your day, your schedule, your appointments, your kid’s schedules…you may miss these beautiful reminders.

As a mom, I was so apprehensive about this surgery, and the outcome….I always wonder if I make the right decisions for her, and for her future. It’s just a mom’s nature to want what’s best for her, and to make decisions that will benefit her…and doubt always seeps in. Worry and anxiety creeps into my mind, and I try not to show it to her.

Then, again, shortly after she was adjusting to the feeling of this new cast, she walked up the steps-alone-even though I told her to wait for me to go behind her and for her to go slow….

I voiced that she was making me nervous, and yet again, I was fortunate enough to get the second blessing of the day she said… “Mom, I am strong and brave, and you don’t have to worry about me.”

She might as well have said, “Jesus wants you to know He is here, in all of this, and He doesn't want you to worry anymore. He is taking care of me.”

Again, I was crying, thanking God for the beautiful miracle girl He gave me so I can be reminded of His love and His presence.

My prayer this week is that you know He is in your everyday world-He knows you like no other-and He sees your pain, your hurts, your smiles, and your tears.

He is showing you through blessings that may not appear like fireworks, but they are in the voice of a loved one, a sight in nature, or a gesture of a kind stranger.

Pay attention.

The blessings are there.

He is there. 

~Maria