This week has been an interesting week. Last week, we learned that my sister and brother tested positive for COVID. In addition to that, my father’s allergies were attacking him, and my mother wasn’t feeling too great; but believe it or not, in all this. there are still blessings. But we don’t do that often enough, do we? We don’t look for the blessing, for the potential way in which God is working and present even in something that we – and I stress we – perceive as bad or sad or tragic. I think our inability to do that, to even believe God is in the midst of our situation, is what causes us to miss blessings and opportunities that God has given to us for a specific purpose. Last week, I asked where is your faith, where is the without-a-doubt knowledge that God will provide and intercede as He has done before, and while we were yet sinners I might add? This week I ask, where is your hope? Where is your belief that all things are working for your good and that God’s plans are not to harm you but give you an expected end?

Not only has this time given me an opportunity to rest, but it’s also given everyone else in my house an opportunity to rest as well. My brother works a job doing intense manual labor, my father is a teacher, my sister works and is a painter, and my mom is always doing something for our family and on her feet, and in this last week, everyone has not had to toil but rest. I’m thankful that I’ve been feeling pretty decent this past week and that though we, as a family, haven’t been feeling our best, we have portions of health and strength, and most importantly, we have each other. 

I am thankful that my parents have taken care of me in such a way that I knew how to tend to them and my siblings. I’m thankful that at such a calamitous time for the world where people have been displaced from homes and work, we have a roof over our heads, clothes on our feet, shoes on our backs, food on our plates, and our respective jobs. For so many people, the outcomes have been different, the damage has been so much more threatening, and the loss unimaginable, and I don’t take for granted the blessings in this and the goodness of God.

Initially, I didn’t know what to make of the timing of this. Having just graduated from college, I saw this as an impediment to a high time, but the past four years have been busy, and seeing as I always find a way to bite off more than I can chew, I realize this is God giving me the rest and reprieve I have denied myself quite often.

Sometimes, God needs us to slow down and we don’t always regulate ourselves, so He gives us an opportunity to do what we have not yet done for ourselves. 

So when something unexpected occurs in your life, something you feel is derailing what you want, remember first that your life is not meant to simply fulfill your desires but to serve God and His will, and secondly, that God is intentional. Every good and perfect thing comes from Him and He loves us with an everlasting and unwavering love, and all that He does is to reprove, refine and strengthen us. In His perfection, we find joy, we find peace, and though we don’t always realize it, we find the best way to live. 

Gratitude is so important because oftentimes, we take so many things for granted. We think because things have been a certain way for as long as we can remember, that they will remain that way, but the one thing that we are guaranteed in this life is change and that we won’t always be comfortable. However, it is in the discomfort and charting new territory that we learn, and we grow. But most important is the fact that though things in our life can change in the blink of an eye, like our health, like where we live, our relationships, etc, the love of God and His presence never do, which is how we know we can always find and sense God in spite of whatever we are enduring at the moment. And so long as He can be found, as we stand on the Solid Rock that is Jesus Christ, our hope and faith remain firm and always accessible, especially in times like these!