Christian Living

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It has become apparent to me that we take the fragility of human life for granted. It generally happens that the phrase ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’ isn’t even used until we lose something. Now, without trying to sound morbid, thinking of bad things sometimes if they haven’t happened can make me actually realise what I’ve got. Not making much sense? Allow me to elaborate. The simple upsets in life, a cut on the finger for example can suddenly make us aware of how much we actually use our hands. I had my finger plastered up once and tried to simply wash a few pots in the sink, resulting in many dressing changes and a frustrated me shouting about not being able to do that one small job. What about today then? There is a pile of dirty dishes sitting in my kitchen, do I grumble about the fact that they’re there or do I relish the thought of being able to do them without complications? Of course it’s the former, my fingers are fine so I’m not even thinking about that, but that is exactly my point. When I couldn’t do that one simple job I complained, therefore each and every time I carry out that task I should thank God for both my hands and the fact that I can use them.
A friend of mine told me last year how her father had fallen badly and broken his ankle. For many weeks he couldn’t walk, couldn’t drive, couldn’t even get about the house and felt very frustrated. The day before he had got up and gone about his day without even thinking how fortunate he was to be able to run up and down stairs and go out if he wanted. It was his usual life and he just didn’t even think about the possibility of not doing those things.
We are always being told to thank God and I’m sure everybody does. But I know that we are often more thankful for prayers answered such as a successful operation or a friendship restored, things that we have asked for and received. How often do we thank Him for the gift of life? How many of us are fortunate enough to swing two legs out of bed in the morning, to rub our two good eyes with two hands and get ready for the new day ahead? Most of us are and we do it every single day, are we thankful or do we just take it for granted?
I often hear people complaining about the weather, again something so simple but something that we just accept. Do we wake up in the morning, look outside and thank God for what we see. Thank God when it’s dry or sunny or whatever our preferred weather for that day might be? Or do we just moan about the rain or the snow if the weather doesn’t appeal to us?
It shouldn’t take us going through bad times to make us realise how blessed we are yet for many people that is the way it happens. We hear sorrowful tales of loss and about not making the most of loved ones before it got too late. Tragedy happens to us all in one form or another and I know that everybody deals with it differently but the point I’m trying to make is let’s celebrate life now, let’s enjoy what we have, what we can use, the people we get to spend time with while we don’t have things to complain about. Instead of living day to day without thinking about things and then wishing we could go back when something upsets us, let’s embrace everything that we have right now, everything we are and everything we can do, then our days won’t be wasted and we can never say, ‘I wish I’d realised how blessed I was before’. Realise it now and be thankful, for each and every tiny little thing. I’m going now to wash my pots, and I am thankful, because I can!

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