No Small Blessings

If there's one cliché that Christian bloggers love, it's the adage “Be thankful for small blessings.” Everywhere you look, articles, blog posts, tweets, etc. are sent out to celebrate the beautiful and meaningful things that we often take for granted. And when we hear the significance of these things being extolled to us, we are invariably told “It's the little things that count.”

No. It's really not.

That's not to say that good meals, outings with friends, and other such things don't count; rather, if these things can be called “blessings” at all, they are anything but little.

As Christians, we acknowledge God to be the source of all good, accepting that nothing can be good apart from Him (James 1:17). If that's the case, how dare we call our blessings “little”?

Think of it: God is perfect in all ways and commands all authority, while we human beings—plodding around upon the earth and often frustrating the Divine Command—certainly are not and do not. God created us, choosing to share His abundance with us, and we respond by turning our backs on Him time and again. Our God owes exactly nothing to the imperfect and depraved humanity that has consistently and remorselessly told Him to shove off.

And yet, He still thinks of us (Ps. 8:4). And yet, He provides not just for our needs, but for our comfort and our enjoyment as well. That a good, infinite being would devote any attention to His evil, finite inferiors is nothing short of a cosmic scandal. The things our God does for us should shock, amaze, and humble us, even if they happen every day.

In short, there are no small blessings. Think of your coffee, your blueberries, and your new books as ineffable miracles. Because that's precisely what they are.