Thanking God for the Optimists in My Life

On the way home from a meeting at the local tech school on Wednesday, I pulled over to take this picture. Yes, there may 13 buzzards in this picture!

And, yes, my first thought was...what a great image...buzzards waiting for things to die. In an economically depressed rural town, not a pleasant thought.

I told a church member about it, and she wisely responded, "But where would we be without them?" And then I thought...we'd have to clean up a lot more road kill than we do. How dare be down and ungrateful about God's natural clean-up crew!

Ironically, I was talking with the church member who is on our finance committee about an unexpected blessing. My secretary talked to me about 20 minutes after I took this picture, the picture which tempted me to be sad about things in town dying...well, she informed me that someone had sent the church a check for $34,000, which is probably the largest single check ever given....so we were talking about this unexpected blessing when I was reminded that what may seem like buzzards might be gifts from a loving Father, like the check.

So don't jump to conclusions about apperances...just because there are buzzards on the water tower of your life, it doesn't mean your Father isn't doing something amazing! Romans 8:28 is actually true...God does work all things out for our good if we trust Him! And while He's working it out, don't dwell on the negatives (that's a sin...see Philippians 4:8), but be joyful, pray continually, and be thankful our Father is real, and with you (1 Thess. 5:16-18), no matter how many buzzards you see!