One of the nicer parts of the long flights to India is the food they give me to eat: 2 meals and a snack each flight. Airplane food has a bad reputation. It is the butt of many jokes, and deservedly so. Yet some of my best meals and snacks have been on airplanes. That isn’t because they would have won any awards if I had been at home eating them. It is because I wasn’t at home, and nothing else was available to me. My thirst was quenched by orange juice that is common in my kitchen but greatly relished and appreciated when one is thirsty mid-flight with no fluids in one’s bag. Deep hunger makes the blandest food seem very special and tasty. It is all relative.
While in the army, they took away every bit of freedom I had in basic training, then, after awhile gave me a Saturday off. I still remember how grateful and appreciative I was for that free time. I guess airplane food works the same way. Take everything away and you are grateful for anything given back. It’s too bad we have to lose something in order to really appreciate it, whether it be food or freedom.
In a country of plenty we don’t appreciate all what we have as those do who live in poverty, and appreciate very little. That is a shame. We shouldn’t have to loose something before we appreciate it, but this is often the case. It is this that brings guilt and regret at funerals. We do not fully appreciate a loved one until he or she is gone. We do not appreciate good health until we are lying in the hospital. We are a people who often appreciate what we have only after it is taken away from us. Let us try to be grateful for our blessings large and small, while we still have them, and can enjoy them. (Doylestown, PA November 23, 2015)
Psalm 100:1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
If you lost everything you had (wealth, possessions, family, health, etc.) what would you miss most? Send time this week thanking God for it. Appreciate all you have while you still have it!