Residing in the Blessings
I moved my morning reflection spot to the back porch. It gives me the opportunity to be surrounded by an orchestra of God’s nature and to bask in the paintings of the sun rise.
We added the covered porch in 2011 – something that I always wanted for our home. Despite that deep longing for this amenity, it has only been in the last few weeks that I have started utilizing it to its full potential. Other people will flock to the back porch (and sometimes the front porch) and they will tell me how blessed I am to have the spot. It took me stepping out to begin to dwell in that blessing myself.
I confess that I did try to make the most of the porch after it was completed. I set up a spot to use my laptop while watching the boys in the pool. It lasted a few days before I determined that it was too hot. I tried another round where I created a location to edit my books. It lasted an even shorter period of time because of the bugs that kept buzzing around my head or trying to nibble on some part of my body that I could not reach to scratch. I knew that my back porch would be perfect “if only I had . . .”
The location would make most people smile. It sits close enough to the creek that I can hear the music of the running water over the rocks. The trees around the yard are filled with song birds, squirrels and other delightful creatures. The trees glisten with the dew of the morning or perform their own concert when the wind whips through their leaves.
Others see it when they are here for a moment. I was lost in that idea of not being able to “see the forest for the trees.” The blessing stood right before me, but I focused on the imperfections and the distractions instead of the blessing.
I am finally beginning to get it. I sit here, watching the beams of light shine through the trees – enhanced by the fog dancing up from the cool water of the creek. I experience the beauty and blessing of the moment because I have made the choice to be in it. It is about being on my back porch – it is about being in the presence of the One that made my back porch a reality.
“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.” Psalm 68:19
God gives abundantly because He loves abundantly and God loves because He is love and there is no separating Him from Love. In love and through love, God pours out Grace over all the world – Grace enough for a life overflowing in the abundant blessings. It is there. I can recognize that it is there and live in that Grace or I can let the distractions and imperfections keep me from experiencing that Grace. Either way, it is here.
Just like my porch. It is here. I can sit inside facing the other direction. I can close myself off in my bedroom and not even acknowledge its existence. I can veg. out on the couch in front of the television . . . or I can bask in the blessings offered by that porch.
The porch is there either way – the choice is mine. My choice will not change the reality of the blessing (of my porch or of the Grace). My choice simply determines where I reside.
