"Count your blessings! Name them one by one... see what God hath done."
Hymn: “Count Your Blessings” – Johnson Oatman, Jr.
(1856-1922)
Tune: BLESSINGS
According to this hymn, some of the ‘rewards’
of counting your blessings are:
- It will surprise you what the Lord has done.
- You will be singing as the days go by.
- Angels will attend, bringing hope and comfort.
- Every doubt will fly.
- You’ll see what God has done.
None of us would likely sit down with a legal pad and begin
making a list, naming all our blessings one by one. We know that would be a
futile, unending endeavor. Our minds are boggled even before the pen touches
the paper.
On the other hand, just considering our blessings as one big
category is equally ineffective… if not worse. Making a wide gesture and
declaring that “all these blessings” are from the Lord disallows us the special
blessing of seeing each one individually… and appreciating them as separate
indicators of God’s watchcare and provision in our lives.
Somewhere in between – that’s where we need to land. Looking at the overall swath of God’s blessings in our lives
while being keenly aware of each one individually – even if unable to make an
exhaustive list!
Tallying our blessings is one of the ways we can truly SEE
what God has done prior to this place in our history. It makes us more
conscious of what he is doing here and now; it also loosens the ground ahead to
be more fertile – more open to receiving the blessings that await us between
now and this time next year!
Hear a Fun Ragtime Setting
of This Hymn
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