“The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.” Psalm 67:6
When you read this verse from the book of Psalms, your North American mind probably starts to consider what you have; the stuff in the asset column of your life’s ledger.
I read a news article about Warren Buffet last week and it brought me a back in the day memory that our Monday Bible study men’s group talked about the Berkshire Hathaway meeting that had taken place in Omaha, as one of our members worked at the NE Furniture Mart, and we all agreed that their view of the importance of North American blessings is not that realistic. The bottom line is that 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 paltry 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 Northeast of Hinche. This group of people were the wedding party that had just concluded at about 9:30 in the morning; avoid the heat and get married early in the day in Haiti. I can’t tell you who are the bride and groom or parents or attendants, but they were very 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 old man’s derriere after a two-hour long service. Those chairs were certainly a blessing as the alternative is sitting on a church pew that was a simple board nailed to three branches sunk into the dirt floor.
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 tonight or on Sunday, this photo will come back to haunt you or at least remind you of where you could be worshipping. 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.
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.
May God be with you…Jay