The Best Blessings

It has been several weeks since I have posted anything, so thank you for your patience. There are a few reasons for this, but one is that in the recent past I had the misfortune to suffer a heart attack, and the resultant fitting of four stents to take care of the damaged organ. I was fortunate to be reasonably close to a local hospital and able to arrive to present myself at A&E having driven there myself while the pain worsened. After collapsing at the nurses’ desk, I was rushed in a blue light ambulance to a specialist cardiac hospital, where they had been alerted to my arrival and were waiting to perform angioplasty at haste. It took about an hour from my collapse to being fitted with the life saving stents, and since time is of the essence, I feel blessed not only to survive, but to have survived well. Two other men in my wider family had a heart attack in the same week, but sadly they did not benefit from the same outcome. There are families grieving right now, and all because their loved one did not benefit from the “golden hour” as I did. It is apparent that when the heart isn’t working properly, everything else in the body suffers. Basically, I didn’t feel like blogging, or doing anything at all, because one essential part of my body was out of kilter.

So where does the blog title come from? How can any blessing, never mind our best blessings, come out of a serious issue like a heart attack? I have very quickly come to the conclusion that life can hang by a thread, or in my case a very thin, spindly heart artery which I didn’t fully know about or appreciate, and so life takes on a new meaning. This makes me more fully love others and appreciate those in my circle of family and friends in a way not previously properly understood. At that time it was evident who were the ones that cared, not just a little, but the most, and the answer surprised me. They were mostly outwith my own church fellowship family. I was surprised to the point of being rocked to my core. We ARE good at showing care when we meet on a Sunday, but not usually between services. However, our great God does not let us down so He supplied the support of good people from another church fellowship.

In the short space of 48 to 72 hours the words of an old hymn took on a clearer meaning. “Heaven above is softer blue, earth around is sweeter green, something lives in every hue, Christless eyes have never seen.” This hymn was quoted to me many years ago as a young man finding salvation, and now many years later once again, it strikes home afresh. When you look back and think about what might have been, your attitude and outlook must change. It cannot remain unaffected.

Close family and friends are expected to respond to the “what if” questions, and as a result draw closer to you. However, something I wasn’t prepared for was the outpouring of thoughts, love, and prayers either made in person, or on social media from those on the periphery of my life. Over the years our lives may have crisscrossed in ways I certainly didn’t fully appreciate, but when it counted, they come forth to show their true value. It was always there, but now had an outlet. Once again, I am Blessed beyond measure.

I suppose the real question is, why should it take a real life-threatening situation to make us wake up to the unpredictability and brevity of life. That’s not to mention the obvious fact that our mortal bodies can be held in place by a weak, slender, temperamental, thread of a wispy, worn out blood vessel? Take care out there my friends. There’s work still to be done for the Kingdom and you may be that very person....

Blessings

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing … Ephesians1:3ESV

How do you count your blessings? The old song says “Count your blessings, name them one by one”, and in the words of the old fiery preachers, “name them and claim them”. Sadly that wee phrase has become the byword of the prosperity gospel people, but we can lay claim to it too. I have a plaque in my kitchen which reads, “When I count my Blessings, I count you twice”. Do you have blessings like that?

I don’t know about you, but when things are not going so well, I forget to recognise my blessings, never mind count them once, and certainly not twice. Does that relate to you too? But God blesses us over and over again, even when we don’t see it, feel it, or recognise it. In one short verse, the apostle uses the word Blessed and blessing three times as if to make a point, and Paul makes it well. Simply put, we are blessed more than we deserve!

If you do a search in the Bible for the words ‘blessings, blessed, or bless, you will find hundreds of places where God will look after, or bless us, His people, and pour out so many blessings that we can’t contain them, even when we can’t feel them. God’s promise is this: “He has (already) blessed us with every spiritual blessing”. It’s a fact, not a theory. It’s a promise, not a thought. And since He is a God of His Word, we can count on it. So, next time you are tempted to think that God has left you on your own, remember His blessings. While you are there, start counting!