Gratitude

As everyone knows, but I am only beginning to comprehend, God created everyone different...for a reason. I've already written about how amazing it is that everyone has specific desires and dreams for their lives, different interests and passions...so I won't spend much time on that...but something that goes along with that is so intriguing to me.

God is the God of us all...He sent His Son to die on the cross for each one of us...He offers the same grace, the same unfailing love, the same everlasting faithfulness, and the same incomprehensible mercy to all those who He created. In that, we are all on the same playing field when it comes to God's salvation and continued presence in our lives...granted, everyone has different backgrounds, different struggles, different temptations, and different hang-ups...but that is what makes God's universality so unfathomable.

Through the situations that each of us have gone through, are going through, and will go through, God has brought the Body of Christ together in a unity that only can be orchestrated by God Himself. There is no other explanation for the way that people who seem to be total opposites can relate to each other so easily. The Body of Christ is one of the most complicated simple things I have encountered...the interconnectedness of it all is comforting and confusing at the same time. I just think it is amazing how God created us the way we are for specific reasons...we each have a God-given purpose and position for ministry within the worldwide church.

The thing that amazes me the most about all of this, though, is God's sovereignty in giving to us according to our needs. We know that He takes us through certain circumstances for a reason...and through that process, He provides us with whatever it is that we need the most during that time (wisdom, patience, love, encouragement, etc.)...then, once the situation is resolved, more or less, the principles that He taught us remain with us throughout the rest of our lives, if we make an effort to apply them. I simply cannot comprehend the fact that people who have been through the most tragic and traumatic situations in their lives are still grateful to God for all the He has done for them...sometimes more than I am. I know it is probably dumb to tie in a quote from a movie in this instance, but it parallels so well...in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, it talks about how people who have lost everything can still be open to love, while people who have lost nothing can not.

It makes my heart smile to see how everyone around me is grateful for the things that God has given them and has done, no matter what they have been through in the storms of this life. How, then, can I have the audacity to complain about the little things such as having too much work to do or my perfect plan for the day being obstructed? Each day is a new day that the Lord has made...it's time for me to thank God for the gift of today and then spend the rest of the day in an attitude of prayer and praise...thanking Him for the good and the bad, because I know that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.