Strange Blessings

I was looking at the readings for the week and wondering how I was going to approach the Beatitudes this time. I happened to glance at the opening lines of Working Preacher WorkingPreacher.org and the comment that the blessings are not a prescription of what we need to do to be blessed, but rather descriptions of people who are already blessed.

We are already blessed. What a concept! We don't need to add "hunger and thirst after righteousness" to our calendars after all. The point that Jesus is making is that we are blessed in our lives right now. We don't need to add anything more to attract God's loving grace. It is here and now.

From people who mourn to people who are persecuted, probably even including people whose calendars are too full, all of us can experience God by just looking around for a moment. The blessings are there.

All that is left to us is to be grateful for God's blessings to us. That lead us to the next interesting truth. Gratitude makes us happier. The more we give thanks the happier we are about our lives. We don't need more stuff, we don't need better lives, we just need to be grateful for the gifts we have in our lives and we will find joy.

We're blessed. Really.