CONSIDERING THE WORK OF HIS HANDS

Not too long ago I celebrated my birthday. I have reached a milestone age in my life and it was worth celebrating. I didn’t have any party plans in mind so I just spent it praying and in the evening my siblings, my mother and my dear friend came over to celebrate with me, my wife and my son. It was a good day. People called me from far and wide, I received various congratulatory text messages and it all had the makings of a glorious day

But when you hit a landmark age in your life, you can’t help but reflect on the things that have happened. So I did, I started taking a critical look at my life and I must admit I was very disappointed. I wasn’t making as much money as I would want to and a few things that I expected to have happened were either not happening or they were happening contrary to my expectation. This frustrated me and it kind of numbed me to all the love I was receiving for the rest of the day. I wasn’t involved in what was going on around me any longer. Here I was surrounded by family, who were being entertained by my bright baby boy and all I could do was sulk internally and be aloof.

Of course my wife knows me better than anybody and she asked me what was up.  I proceeded to explain to her in few words the things bothering me and she tried her best to cheer me up and remind me that I was loved. I should stop focusing on the bad stuff, it will be there tomorrow. Instead I should focus on what was going on at that moment in time and enjoy the day. That sounds awfully similar to Jesus’ admonition that we should not worry about today, neither should we worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6: 25-34).

At first I found it hard to shake off the dark cloud over me. But then it became more and more obvious to me that the more important stuff in life were standing right there in front of me; good friends, a beautiful and loving wife, an awesome son and a loving family, divine health for me and for all that surround me. These things are priceless and eternal. The things I was worried about (it all boiled down to money anyway) are temporary, they do not have eternal value. They were just things that empty people hold on to in order to cover the loneliness in their hearts.

It is always important to focus on the good that God is doing in our lives instead of all the evil Satan and this fallen world confronts us with.

“EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT IS FROM ABOVE, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” James 1:17 KJV (emphasis mine)

All the good things in our lives is from God, whether we know it or not. He does not do evil and I found out that I only had to take a cursory look at my life to see those gifts. He that gave me these things of value will also take care of our other needs.

I know it can be hard to see these things sometimes. Life hits us hard, and sometimes we don’t have many people like I just said on our side. But I encourage you to take a long hard look at your life, you’ll find something good and that thing is from God. Focus on that, and let God see you through your challenges