So grateful

So I've been doing an online Bible study in the book of James (have I mentioned that already), and I am really enjoying it. It has been challenging to make it the first thing I do everyday, and to be accountable to each of the women that are in my group, but I am now at the point where I look forward to opening my email each morning to read what God has placed in their heart to share.

I'm amazed, even, at how God put this group together, as we come from the UK, the US and Canada; yet, no matter how many miles (or kilometers, for those of us schooled in the metric system) are between us, we share so much in common. What a wonderful group of ladies God has brought into my life, and I am so grateful for each one!

We have been studying the book of James, a verse or 2 a day, and it has been neat to see things in those verses that I have quite possibly overlooked in the past, and to see each one from 7 or 8 different perspectives. Today, for example, I saw something I hadn't before, and it added a whole new dimension to the verses for me.

We read from James 1:15-16, where we are reminded that everything we have, "every perfect gift", comes from God. The first thought I had after reading that was that if everything comes from God, then everything belongs to Him, also. The greatest visual I have of that is my children. I mean, we have children and then we take them to church and dedicate their lives back to God, right? Because they're HIS, on loan to us for a while.

Every child is a gift but, seeing as 3 of my 4 were adopted, the greatness, the HUGE-ness of that, is imprinted on my brain. I know that, if not for His grace and the prayers of many (which availeth much), we would not have our children, and I feel such huge responsibility not to screw this up. They're HIS; I HAVE to do what is right by them.

Okay, so the second thing I got from the verses came in one word: "...with Whom there is no variation or shifting shadow". Variation is by definition a 'degree of difference'. Now, what I had always seen in this verse is that God is unchanging, constant, consistently the same. What I hadn't thought of before, in terms of how He gives (everything), is that He gives equally to all. I don't believe that means that if God allows monetary wealth in your life, He will bless me the same way. What I think it means is that He meets everyone's needs the same, that if He meets me in my greatest need, He will do so for you, also; if He hears my cries, He hears yours, also; if I pray for His blessing, He blesses me, just as He blesses you when you ask.

It's not that I didn't know that before, or that I thought some people got blessed 'bigger' than I did; but it can be so easy to look at someone else's life and think they've "got it made", or that everything is/comes easy for them, and wonder why it's not like that for me. I lose sight of the fact that God doesn't bless us all when one person asks for it; He blesses according to His good pleasure, just at the time we (as individuals) need it. It never occurs to me in that moment that maybe that person has just come through a valley, and is now being met by the "Father of Lights", just as I have done, and will do again, I'm sure, many more times.

As parents, we are always trying to make sure that we keep everything 'fair and equal', that no one gets something (opportunity or otherwise) that no one else gets (with the exception of birthdays, of course). How could we think our Heavenly Father would do any less? He does not change; in Him there is no shifting shadow, no variation. He cares for His children equally, and meets each of us in our needs,as much for one as for the other. His love is unconditional, boundless, and offered to all who would accept it... equally.

So grateful today. So very grateful.