Costly Blessings

November 6, 2014

It's been a strange day, beginning at 5:45 am with the dog pawing at my side of the bed to go outside. When Linda is alone, Emma waits until at least 7 am before beginning her begging routine, but never fails to hop, whimper, and paw at my side of the bed when I am home. It isn't fair, but no one ever said life would be. Emma had just come back in when I got the text from Nate asking if I could ride into school with him and the girls. It's a long story, but one of their vehicles was at the school and needed to come home. Deb was sick, so she wasn't going to be able to bring it back.

An hour later, That job being done, I picked up the oil filter for the old tractor, hauled away the scrap steel in Bob's garage, and was about to head to Buffalo for the swim meet sectionals when we got word that they were canceled due to the hostage standoff downtown. Sadly, that situation ended with a suicide, returning the streets to normal, but the meet was still off. So I had time to plant the horseradish I dug up at my brother's yesterday, deliver the scrap to the recycler, mount the plow on the tractor, change its oil and get the chains ready for winter, before spending the evening with Nathan and Mattie, who are staying the night.

It was a pretty productive day, made more so by a deadly tragedy in Buffalo. It is an odd feeling to know that my blessing came at the price of a man's life. Why then doesn't it strike me as equally odd that the blessings of salvation come to us at the cost of a man's life? Have I become so familiar with the Gospel story that I take for granted its cold, hard cost? I live because Another died. And not just anyone; this was God's own Son. The fact that millennia separate that death from my life should be irrelevant. Christ died; I live. Today I am gaining new insight into my faith. I'm still processing it, trying to figure out how to be thankful for blessings that come at another's expense. I am grateful, but tonight it is a humble and pensive gratitude.