Although this is a throwback post, something I wrote this time of year four years ago, the thoughts still echo in my heart today.
I am blessed. There’s no doubt about it. A warm home, loving husband, supportive family, baby on the way, job in my chosen field – all my needs are more than met. I am grateful!!
However, if I stop at simply being grateful, I fall short.
It’s not enough for me to be thankful for the blessings.
I need to be thankful to someone as the source of those blessings.
From a Biblical perspective, good things are put in my life so that I can praise the One who has given me those blessings. As great as these good things are, I miss the point if I delight in all the good things and forget the God who’s provided it all.
This concept of has been illustrated the same way in a few things I’ve been reading…
Good things symbolized by a stream…
God the gracious provider symbolized by a fountain.
Their thoughts…
“Let not excess of love and delight in the stream make us forget the fountain.” Lucy Hutchinson
Matthew Henry reflects on Hannah’s prayer in I Samuel 2:1-10, after God grants her prayer for a child after she had previously been barren. “What great things she says of God. She takes little notice of the particular mercy she was now rejoicing in, does not commend Samuel for the prettiest child… as fond parents are too apt to do. No, she overlooks the gift and praises the giver; whereas most forget the giver and fasten only on the gift. Every stream should lead us to the fountain; and the favours we receive from God should raise our admiration of the infinite perfections there are in God.” (emphasis mine)
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:17
“Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:4
Some delight as they stand in the stream.
Some lost in thought of a high-water dream…
Some numb to the waves lapping below;
Some loose heart between ebb and flow…
Some say, “Too shallow, too slick, too cool,”
Refusing to see the depth of their pool.
Some carried away by currents swift,
Some content to aimlessly drift…
Only few venture upward to find the source.
To trace the waters over winding course,
To climb against current to top of the mountain,
To find stream is nothing except for the fountain.
slEnsalia
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