An email friend sent this link to me today, and I wanted to forward it to all readers. Whether the video clip was staged or not, it is truly inspirational and gives us a powerful message.
We take so many things for granted. For example, one thing every sighted person takes for granted is the simple ability to see. As the video clip makes clear, just being able to see opens up to us a world of wonders to behold in God’s creation all around us. Just being able to see gives us incredible freedoms of movement, action and comprehension that the blind do not have. If you are reading this post, you are able to see it.
James 1:17 tells us “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.” Paul reminds us in I Thessalonians 5:18: “In every thing give thanks.” How often do we take everything for granted (I’m directing this question to myself as well as to readers after watching this video clip)?
After watching the video clip, please take a moment to realize just how important a gift your eyesight is. Right where you are sitting, shut your eyes…tight. Then imagine that you will never be able to open them again. Try to get up from your computer and see how much you can do with your eyes closed tight for a few minutes. After a few minutes, I think you’ll wonder why it has been so long since you took the time to thank God for your eyesight. I know I did! After thanking God for just that one gift, why shouldn’t we all thank him for our other senses (to whatever degree they work), and every other thing that means a lot to us?
Millions of people in the Middle East (some of them are your fellow Christians) would be very thankful just to have a reliable place to live, be sheltered, be fed and be safe from ISIL. As you read this, there are tens of thousands of Kurds (good guys) in Kobane, Syria fighting evil ISIL attackers. Those besieged Kurds would be incredibly thankful if just a few warplanes from the USA, the UK, France, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey or any other nation which claims to be part of the very haphazard “coalition” (that is fighting ISIL to some limited extent) would come and bomb the ISIL fanatics who are attacking them. I saw a report on cable TV that the ISIL attackers are using American tanks and artillery against these Kurdish defenders…who seem to have been forgotten by every nation in this “coalition.” Perhaps someone could mention this besieged city to President Obama so he could kindly have a few US warplanes sent to destroy the American-made military equipment now in the hands of ISIL that is being used to kill innocent people. The cable TV report I saw said the ISIL artillery is sitting on top of a hill–apparently on open ground where warplanes could easily hit them. Apparently, no one in the US military in control of selecting ISIL targets to bomb watches cable TV news channels. The citizens of Kobane, Syria are fighting to save their city, lives and families from ISIL while the entire world…ignores them. They would be unspeakably thankful for some warplanes to actually show up and bomb the artillery and tanks that were trying to kill them as this post was written. This killing is going on, as the cable TV segment showed, even as the Turkish military simply watches from a few kilometers away…even though Turkey’s Parliament voted overwhelmingly a few days ago to support the war on ISIL. Hello, Turkey? This is the Real World calling. The war on ISIL is happening on your doorstep and you are doing nothing. There are even media reports ISIL artillery shells have landed on Turkish soil. Hello Turkey? Will you ever wake up? How long will you continue to support ISIL via your painfully-obvious refusal to act against them…even when ISIL is shelling and killing people on your very border?
Forgive me for my impromptu rant about the incredibly inept way in which the “war on ISIL” is being fought. What it is leading to is this question: Are you thankful that you and your family (if you have one) are not refugees dependent on others for everything after fleeing from ISIL madmen? Are you thankful that your world hasn’t been torn apart by warfare suddenly erupting all around you? I’m thankful for these facts. There are millions of people now in the Mideast who, a few short years (or months) ago, never dreamed they would be refugees sitting in a camp dependent on charity for the necessities of life.
Are you thankful that the simple act of going to your job didn’t get you beheaded by an Islamic fanatic who was reportedly sympathetic with ISIL (as happened to one innocent woman in Oklahoma recently)? In II Timothy 3:1, Paul warned those of us who would be alive in the latter days that we would live in “perilous times.” There are many locations in the world where many millions of people already experience this as a fact. This prophecy by Paul is not so much a reality to those of us living in the USA or the western world…yet.
All humanity is made in God’s image, Genesis 1:26 informs us. We have feelings, so God does too. I think we’ve all had the experience of giving a lot to someone and receiving no commensurate appreciation. Its hurts our feelings, doesn’t it? I wonder how God feels when he has showered on the USA such a vast array of blessings, liberties, abundance, etc.–only to have many millions of Americans tell him he doesn’t even exist. Maybe you could “make God’s day” by giving thanks to Him for a whole list of blessings you (and our nation) now have. Those readers in other nations could thank God for the list of blessings you and your nation enjoys.
You could start by thanking God for your eyesight, and everything that one blessing makes possible. Please do me a favor too–let God know I prompted you to come to him with a prayer of thanksgiving. For that…I thank you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Hzgzim5m7oU&vq=medium
