Thankful.

Thankful. I’m learning to be thankful.

“You never know what you got till it’s gone” is one of the truest sayings. I am sitting in the dark because there is no power.  I am thankful for power.  I just went through a funky episode with my left eye.  I am thankful for normal eyes and vision.  I meet people who struggle and often fail to get an education. I am thankful for the opportunity of an education. I’m thankful for running water, food, and paved roads. The list could go on.

With every setback I encounter, it makes me all the more thankful for the little things.  I don’t think you can truly be thankful for what you have until it is taken away, even if for a short time. 

Isn’t it true? When you are sick, you remember the good days when you were healthy.  It makes you so thankful for your health. When your health is taken from you, you become more aware and grateful for it.

The same is true for the luxuries we have in the States.  When you see the way other people live, and furthermore, start living as they do, your whole perspective changes.  I have become more thankful, but also more aware that so many of my possessions are not needed, as we so often think they are.

The thing that I have become most thankful for is here is Jesus.  I am thankful for His sacrifice.  He came from heaven (which I’m sure is hoppin’ with great things) to earth.  He came from the highest place to the lowest.  From the greatest to the least. And he didn’t look at the least, he LIVED with them.  He was born in the humblest of places, a manger. He was the son of a carpenter.

Being here, living this way, with these people makes me all the more thankful for Christ’s sacrifice.  I am just tasting a bit of what He went through. I merely peeking into the kind of sacrifice He made. And it is humbling beyond compare.

Thankful, oh I am so thankful.