As the holidays approach, I always look forward to seeing again one of my all-time favorite movies, White Christmas.  There’s nothing like this old chestnut to put me in a festive mood!  Strangely, it isn’t the title song, as good as it is, that gets me humming, but the Crosby/Clooney duet, Count Your Blessings.  You know it, right?  “When you’re worried and you can’t sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep…”

But that’s the hard part!  When I’m worried, the last thing I think to do is count my blessings.  I’m too busy counting what’s wrong to pay attenstion to what’s right.  I’m too likely to focus on what’s lacking to see the abundance that’s actually all around me.

Maybe that’s why the words bless, blessed, blessedness, blesses, blessing and blessings show up in the Bible more than 600 times.  And that doesn’t include words like gift, favor, bounty and benefit. It’s almost as if we need to be reminded of what God has given us at least a couple of times a day, if not more!

The antidote to fear and worry is focusing on what we have instead of what we don’t.  Given the times we live in, this is a daring and courageous act of trust in our giving and blessing God!  It’s one faithful person who can stand up and say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul…” when times are tough and the gifts seem to be going to everyone else.

That’s why I like that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas.   To give us the chance to simply rejoice and give thanks for God’s continued blessings.  Trust me, they are just waiting to be counted.

My mother had a knack for finding things.  No matter what was lost—scissors, glasses, keys, homework—given a little time she could lay her hands on it.  I didn’t know how she did it—the longer it took for me to find something, the more frantic I’d become, angrily storming from room to room, probably losing more things in the process.  She, on the other hand, would stop what she was doing for a few minutes, then get up and walk over to what had been so desperately “lost.” She finally shared her secret: sit quietly and let it call to you.  No running around, no tearing apart the couch, no self-recriminations for losing it in the first place.  Just stop, listen, and find.

Jesus makes it sound just as easy to have what we want, find what we’re looking for.  Just ask, just search, just knock; it’s all there, waiting—just put out your hand.

And that’s the trouble isn’t it?  I remember all too well putting out my hand and one of my brothers would surprise me with a worm or a frog—something slimy and gross.  We’re adults now, we don’t play those games anymore, but I also don’t always trust that if I put out my hand God will give me a blessing instead of a snake!

How much we miss, though, because we don’t ask, don’t seek and don’t knock!  All through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus is telling us over and over:  God loves you and has called you to be part of the family of faith.  Trust me—you have nothing to fear.  Love me—you will have what you need.

So much for frantically searching everywhere for God, when all we have to do is sit quietly and hear Jesus calling us.  All we have to do is reach out a hand and receive the blessing.  The slower days of summer are upon us—a good time for seeking and finding.  Blessings on you all!