Five Things I'm Thankful For Friday

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

~Psalm 19:1

This week I'm thankful for:

Beautiful Oman

1. Creation.  It's an incredible world that we live in-- creation just astounds me.  Last weekend my friends and I camped out on a beach Musandam, Oman.  We laid on a mat and gazed at the stars while the strains of cheesy pop songs from the next camp over invaded our silence.  Above me was a crescent moon accompanied by the big dipper-- the only constellation I can pick out, and the soft lapping of the waves on the shore.  The next day, we donned masks and snorkels and explored the blue waters of the Persian Gulf.  Incredibly, below the water's surface was a living world-- beautiful technicolor fish, the likes of which I've only seen behind glass.  Wow, how great is our God!

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hand hath made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

2. Faith.  At church this morning, while singing praises to God, I stopped and thought about how thankful I am that He is real to me.  It is inconceivable to me to imagine a world without God.  (This is not to say that I'm a super Christian-- I doubt, I don't always trust Him, I stray-- one line from a favorite hymn which I've always identified with goes "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.")  I know what it's like to want to believe, but to not be quite able to.  It's a terrible place to be, and when I felt that way, my prayer always echoed the exclamation of the poor father in Mark whose son was demon possessed: "I believe; help my unbelief!"  Belief in God is a supernatural event-- I recognize that my belief in Him stems completely and only from Him-- I can truly say that he opened my eyes.  I am thankful for this gift of faith, because it is what sustains me and leads me to life.  Dum Spiro Spero.

3. Goldengrams.  Four years ago today, my grandma departed this world and flew to her Father's arms.  I had an incredibly close bond with her-- she is perhaps the only human I've ever known whose love I could trust in-- I had no doubt that she loved and cherished me and that love inspired me, gave me confidence.  That unwavering love of hers and the bond it created was a wondrous gift.  I loved her with my whole heart and I'm thankful for the woman that she was: her faith, her devotion to her family, the daughter she raised that became my mom, her selflessness... She was an amazing woman.  Her absence her and her presence there is just one more treasure I expect to find in heaven.

When the Lord takes a child, there is one less cord to fasten you to this world and another band to draw you toward heaven... Happy is the trouble that loosens our grip of heaven.  From Beside Still Waters by Charles Spurgeon

4. Work.  After a slow first month working in Dubai, work seems to be steadily picking up.  Last week was great, and I ended up turning down four jobs this week due to being already booked for another week-long job (one of the declined jobs was for the Atlantis Hotel and involved swimming with dolphins, another was in Jordan, another in Qatar, and the last in Bahrain.  I would have had a blast doing these jobs-- or at least would have enjoyed seeing these new places-- but I'm thankful that I'm working and I hope this bodes well for future bookings).

This picture of me as a child gives you an idea of why I'm so thankful those spindly things support me! 

5. Legs.  In the last few months I've tried to make it a practice to stop and be thankful for the little things-- the gifts that God gives me throughout the day.  This seems silly, I guess, but this week as I power walked from my house to the bus stop, I thanked God for my legs, and by extension, my health. Temperatures here in the Middle East have already hit 100F/37C and I'm sometimes out under the direct sun for quite a bit of time.  I'm thankful that I'm well, and that these toothpicks I call legs are able to support me and transport me wherever I need to go.