“He Give It to Me”

We should not accept in silence the benefactions of God, but return thanks for them.

~Saint Basil the Great

My dad always told me, “It’s lonely at the top.” When I was younger I lived to do musical theater, and every year I had the leading role. This was my greatest joy, and at the same time, I would feel the jealousy from other girls. I was cut out from cliques within the cast, and I felt a real isolation. My greatest gift also became my greatest burden. 

I find this is usually true in life. We are all blessed with different gifts—talents, brilliance, financial abundance, beauty—and often our greatest gifts have a flip side and become our heaviest crosses. The brilliant mind suffers the torment of incessant thinking to the point of compulsivity.  The wealthy one must constantly question what to do with his money. The beautiful woman may be lusted after. 

Yet all of these remain gifts from our heavenly Father out  of his love and goodness. The question is always how can we embrace them with humble gratitude while joyfully carrying the crosses that coincide with them. 

My little Columbian grandmother always had a beautiful response whenever we would compliment a gift she had. “Mina, you are so funny!” “Mina, you’re such a good  cook!” “Mina, we love your house!” No matter what it was we praised her for, she would simply look to the sky with a grin, then look us in the eye and say in her broken English,  “He give it to me.”

Thank you, Jesus, for the abundant gifts you have blessed me with in my life. Help me to embrace everything—my crosses as well as my blessings—in gratitude and joy.

To Ponder: Do you recognize the gifts that God has given you in your life? Just for today can you accept your burdens as being a natural part of life?
~ Kara Klein

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