Happy Thanksgiving!

We need to put on our “contact lenses” this Thanksgiving to appreciate our blessings.



By Blake



Originally posted November 25, 2009.




Out of all the holidays we commemorate throughout the year, Thanksgiving is probably one of the only celebrations that doesn’t “hide” its meaning. There’s no Santa to take away from the birth of a Savior, and no bunny to steal the spotlight from forgiveness. Nearly everyone embraces the true meaning of Thanksgiving: to be content and gracious for what we have by spending time with those we love. What’s more, Thanksgiving is celebrated by nearly everyone, regardless of their religious beliefs.


I recently got contact lenses and the very next day after I had gotten them, one of the contacts ripped as I was trying to put it in my eye. The lenses are rather fragile when they’re not moist, and since it was dry and I was handling it too roughly, it broke. It wasn’t that big of a deal because a few hours later a quick visit back to the eye doctor had me a replacement contact for the one I had broken.


However, in those hours without one of the contacts – with one eye having a lens in and the other not – I could really tell what a difference the contacts had on my vision. I could quickly compare my sight by closing one of my eyes to showcase how much better the eye with the contact in it saw than the one without. I could really, truly appreciate some of the beauty in God’s earth that I hadn’t noticed before, such as the sharpness of the grass and the way leaves rustle on trees in the wind.


That got me thinking that in life, sometimes we just need to “put on our contact lenses.” Life is very fragile and delicate, and in one minute it can be turned upside-down and taken down a completely different, less-pleasing road. However, in the real world, if life is suddenly “ripped apart,” it’s going to take more than a quick visit to a specialist to make it all better again. Whether negative changes we experience are a result of unemployment, the loss of a loved one, or another circumstance, if we just open our eyes we can really appreciate what we have around us instead of dwelling on things that have gone bad or on “stuff” that we don’t have.


So this Thanksgiving, no matter what our stature is in life, we need to put on our contact lenses and be gracious for what we’ve been blessed with. See life in different light and be thankful for everything, no matter how small it is. If we appreciate every little detail, we’ll realize just how much we have to be thankful for. It can all be gone in the blink of an eye, and we need to take every minute to be appreciative of what God has graciously given us.




By Blake; posted November 25, 2009.