PERSPECTIVES

Amy is up and about, I'm appreciative for the prayers and care we've received.

I had a more elaborate post in mind today, but Amy is cooking sausage stuffing. The girls are coming down later and my hunger is likely to supersede my wisdom.

Yesterday was a tough day, but as I sat in the hospital waiting room I started reading the bible I have on my palm pilot (you can only play so much Tetris). It's an odd translation, but it was free for downloading. Anyway, I was electronically thumbing through it and came across the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Something struck home.

Who is it you identify with in that story?

I've identified with the folks who hurriedly passed by the beaten man more often than I would care to admit. What hit me is that I've never really identified with the man who was beaten and robbed.

I have had hard days...even hard years. I've been hungry, but never starving. Even when I was at my poorest financially, had I swallowed a tiny portion of my pride I could have found food and refuge with any number of friends and relations.

It struck me that if the vast majority of people on this planet were to read that story for the first time, the character they would most likely identify with would be that beaten man. Their lives are routinely hard, and they are accustomed to being overlooked.

This hasn't been the easiest year for Amy and me, but we are warm, sheltered, clothed and fed. We are surrounded by an abundance of love. We may have little money, but we are rich.

And we have so very much for which to be thankful.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus