Blessings

This Thanksgiving season I find myself reflecting on this past year. It's been a year of many blessings from the Lord, and I'm touched by each and every one of them. From my wonderful relationships with family and friends, to God's continued faithfulness through my health challenges this year, I'm so grateful for all that He has done and given!

I recently read a devotional by Joni Eareckson Tada where she talks about our blessings in life, and it was a good reminder, and got me thinking. She writes about a man who became blind at an early age, and was able to have surgery so that he could see again. During this man's life with renewed vision, he experienced a set back due to a ulceration in his eyes, causing his eyesight to be greatly impaired. He had good eyesight for only a time, and now lives with the impairment, yet able to see only with magnifying glasses and strong light. With this difficult occurrence, he has learned not to hold onto the joy of eyesight, but give thanks for the blessing that it was. He mentions a quote by William Blake:"He who binds himself to a joy, does the winged life destroy; but he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise."

God has given each of us blessings in life, and He does this because He loves us, but above all, so that He may be glorified in return. May we not hold onto our blessings as our hope and joy, whatever it may be, for it could be gone in an instant. For we must hold on to, and look to Christ who is our everlasting hope and joy, because he will never change or go away! Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." May we praise Him for all that He is and does for us! Joni ends the devotion with a prayer "Great Giver of all gifts, thank You for the blessings of this life. Help me to hold loosely, very lightly the gifts that you bestow. Help me to hold fast to You."