Blessings abound

Ever felt blessed? I mean truly blessed. Not the "I made the light before it turned" kind of blessed but the "I seem to never get anything right and yet my cup runneth over" kind of blessed (Ps 23:5-6). Like when you win and deep down you know you really shouldn't have. Even though you wanted to win and tried your best somewhere down in there is that feeling like something bigger than me was involved in this. I do, but sometimes I have to step back a little and look at my life from a little different perspective before I can truly see it. I remember many years ago paying $6 to have tire patched (this is when Amy and I were starting out and $6 was a lot of money) then being angry because I thought the guy had overcharged me. How our perspectives change.

I'm not a huge basketball fan. I like to watch a good close game, and I usually want the underdog to pull out the win. The march madness basketball tournament is going on right now. Typically, in the first round (32 games involving 64 teams) some of the better teams play some of the not quite so good teams. It's predictable who is gonna win. But occasionally there is an upset, a pretty big one. Just yesterday, for only the second time ever, a 16th seed team defeated a 1 seed team. The top seed team were from a larger university, more resources, more everything going for them. Here's the thing, the smaller school never gave up. They practiced, they prepared, they had a very specific plan going into the game. And it paid off. Players from this much smaller school were beyond thrilled.

I can see some of this in Genesis 47-50. Jacob (and his entire family) can finally see the payoff of Joseph's (thru God's preparation) path. What seemed totally unfair, with completely unsurmountable odds, not only saved them, not only blessed them, it "exceedingly" blessed them (Gen 47:27).

See you tomorrow!