Blessings, you know what they are.
It’s when you pull into the grocery store and there waiting for you is front row parking. It’s hearing the laughter of your husband after you’ve told him a joke. It is forgiveness from another you offended. It is a surprise you were not expecting. It is rain the day before you were going to water the flower beds. It is uninterrupted shower time. It is snuggling with little ones. It is a warm feeling of happiness that radiates from your heart. It is a hug and someone saying they love you. It is fitting into your jeans at the end of summer. It is appreciation. It is protection during a storm. It is a smile from the waitress. It is dinner with plenty of food. It is the greeting of a friend. It is waking up the next morning.
It is different things to different people.
It is all this and so much more.
So many things too numerous to mention.
They are easy to overlook. To ignore. To take for granted. To just expect as par for the course. To even complain about.
And yet, without blessings our life would be gray and white. Color devoid.
My son the other day was wrestling with some electronics. You know how it is. You are trying to get something to work and do what they are supposed to do and for some reason they are either doing the opposite thing or nothing at all. Or maybe even crashing and burning. But whatever they are doing, they are majorly wasting your good precious time that you had planned for other things, and they are causing your attitude to plummet towards the south pole.
He was persistently working to solve the problem, muttering to himself instructions and such, when all of a sudden whatever he was doing worked.
He blurted out, “Thank the Lord for scattered blessings in my life.”
And then he was coming into the kitchen to excitedly tell me that everything was working. Spreading his exuberance around the room.
Later I thought about what he said. “Scattered blessings.”
I had never heard this before.
I had thought of the image of blessings being like roses. How we are often looking for and wishing for a dozen roses along our path, when often the roses are scattered along our path. Two here. One up there. Another one further along. Occasionally we come upon three together, but so rarely a dozen sitting together in a vase. Yet we want a dozen at a time so badly that we don’t hardly even notice the pair sitting together, or the three spread across our path in a single day.
Sometimes we delay living or enjoying life until something big happens. We get our life together. Buy our first house. Have our first child. Get married. Graduate with a degree. We retire and start living the good life. Stop a bad habit. Lose weight. Recover from an addiction. Remodel the kitchen.
We tell ourselves when I accomplish this one or three things, then I will start enjoying life. Slow down. Be happy. Relax more.
Meanwhile we are not noticing any of the roses strewn along our path because all we can focus on is our goal and how we are not there yet.
Grumpy. Complaining. Tight with our smiles is what we are.
“Quit looking for the bouquet and enjoy the single rose,” someone once told me.
I had been rushing by the scattered roses, not appreciating them as the gifts they were, rushing forward in search of the whole bouquet. Bouquets of blessings are rare, though, and only appear maybe a few times during a life. Sometimes not at all.
Scattered roses, Scattered blessings.
They are the same.
Yes, thank the Lord for scattered blessings.
Lord, help us notice, savor, and enjoy the blessings you scatter daily throughout our life.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ~James 1:17
Join the Discussion: What scattered blessings are you currently enjoying?
- How Knowing Your Husband Can Impact Him for Good - March 24, 2022
- How to Stop Focusing on What’s Wrong with You - March 9, 2022
- Is God Really Good All the Time? - February 24, 2022
This is SUCH a beautiful reminder for me this morning! Perfect. I forget all the time to look for scattered blessings, I’m so focused on seeking after one specific blessing or a whole bouquet of them. How insightful of your son! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and for being an instrument God will use for joy in my day today.
Jeanelle, thanks for your kind words.
This posting is a blessing. It makes me feel appreciative after reading it. Everyone has blessings from God scattered throughout their lives. I like knowing that about God and how fair He is with us all.
Colleen, I agree. It is comforting to know this about God. It is one more conformation of his deep love for us.
The great thing that I have found with Blessings, the more I look for them, and thank God for them, the more they show up!
So true, Bliss. Often is is our attitude that determine how many blessings we will notice.
Yes I love lifes scattered blessings. Thanks for making me realize how important they are. BTW that was a good quote “Quit looking for the bouquet and enjoy the single rose!”
Thanks Theresa, your post was one of my scattered blessings.
And Christian, your comment was one of my scattered blessings.
I was listening to a Bible scholar talk about Psalm 23 and related that the “green pastures” were probably not something that we could just plop ourselves down and never move or have want again. That God will provide what we need to keep going for the next 10 minutes. (Perhaps a scattered blessing?) That as we continually follow God down the path called Life that He, our Shepherd, will keep providing a way to go – as we follow we can see the gifts that He leaves for us – the scattered blessings. What a wonderful reminder, thank you.
Thanks for the observation and further development of the idea. We can find joy in knowing our path will be sprinkled by our Lord with green provisions.