“The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.” Psalm 67:6 NIV
When you read this verse from the book of Psalms, your North American mind might instinctively start to consider what you have; the stuff in the asset column of your life’s ledger. Important, well yes, but back in the day in Nebraska, our men’s Bible study group talked about the Berkshire Hathaway meeting that took place in Omaha and we all agreed that their shareholders view of the importance of North American blessings is not that realistic. Bottom line is God blesses us today and will again tomorrow with all that we need; never fails and more importantly He has a home waiting for you in Heaven that will put your shanty here on earth to shame. The attached photo was taken at a Lutheran Church in the Plateau Central somewhere near a fence row of cactus about twenty minutes east of Hinche. If you have seen my photo of a Haitian Bible resting on a wood pew; this is where I took that photo. This group of people was the wedding party and guests from the ceremony that had just concluded at about 9:30 in the morning; I too should have been in the photo as Pastor Marin, Joey and I just happened to be visiting this location. I can’t tell you who are the bride and groom or parents or attendants, but they are happy; they seem to be blessed with happiness and fine dress clothes.
As you can see, they had prepared for an overflow crowd as there are chairs set outside. Those chairs are not like North American padded folding chairs, those chairs can get very painful on a soft Nebraskan derriere after a two hour long service. Those chairs are a blessing as the alternative is sitting on a board that is suspended by three branches. My vehicle was the only one on the premises; everyone walked to the ceremony…out in the middle of nowhere in rural Haiti.
God truly blesses us, every day, in so many various ways. I hope and pray that when you are sitting in the pew in your Church on Sunday, this photo will come back to haunt you. Blessings from our Triune God can and are taken for granted so often throughout our life’s journey. A daily meal of beans and rice for a quarter is such a blessing. Two hours of singing and listening to a message is a blessing if you have spent a couple of hours walking to your Church; why would you want to leave after just an hour? Count your blessings dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.