Blessings unaware

James 1:17 (ESV)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

"The good Lord must know when I'm out of my comfort zone," says Marlene Creech who lives on a pension, "because that's when interesting things happen!" One day Marlene could not get on line. Her computer kept flashing the message that her dial-up server was down. After two or three tries, Marlene quit.

The "server is down" message continued for another few days, and finally Marlene called the company. "The automated phone systems are not easy for me at my age," she says  "but finally I reached a person, and told him the problem." After checking, the man told her that her dial-up phone number was bad, and she needed to get a new one.

"The problem here is that there are no more local numbers available," he told Marlene. "You'll have to choose one of three long distance numbers." Marlene never thought to ask if there would be a change in cost for this. She chose a number, and used it for a month. And when she received her phone bill she almost fainted. The bill was $257.

How could this bill be so much higher than usual? "With my budget being so tight, I had to call them again, get myself through the automated system again, and tell my story to two or three people before reaching an employee who understood what I was asking," she says.

"Your town only has one local number to get on line, and it's perfectly fine," he told her.

"Then why did that other man tell me that my line was bad?" She asked. This employee had no answer, just the suggestion that she return to the local number, which she did.

"The next day I called the phone company again, this time to see if I could set up payments on this large bill, as my pension was already stretched to the limit," Marlene says. By now she was a pro at navigating the automated phone system, and she ended up with yet a third employee, to whom she repeated the entire story. "Let me look up your account," he suggested. A few moments later he came back to the phone, a bit puzzled. "A deduction to your account was made yesterday," he told her. "You have a balance of $85, not $257."

It was the exact amount of the long distance overcharge, Marlene realized. Although she had not gotten angry or even complained, someone had taken pity on her and removed the charges. "The encounter left me so thankful," Marlene says. "Many times we receive blessings, and don't even know it."

Dear Lord, thank You for the blessing that You continue to shower upon us. Help us to take the time to recognize the things You do for us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.