Blessings can come into our lives in many forms and often in ways we least expect. We may not even be looking for them to appear when suddenly they settle over us like a warm blanket on a cool night and bring welcome peace. Other times they explode as unanticipated fireworks which cannot be missed.

Such was the former case when a relatively new friend asked me the other day if I'd been writing this week. She had actually listened when I told her about my writing and cared enough to hold me accountable! This shower of blessing was truly refreshing and, interestingly enough, came when I was in the middle of polishing off the short version of my synopsis. So I was writing at that moment, as a matter of fact, and struggling to summarize a complex plot in as few words as possible while still conveying the full depth of emotion and story line contained in it. And when I returned to my work, there the blessing was: the "right words" just waiting to be discovered, needing only the nourishment of friendship to bring it into bloom. How awesome are You, O Lord!

The explosion in my life, on the other hand, has nothing to do with my writing but is the exciting gift which has turned our quiet life upside down: getting to have two of our grandchildren with us for a few days while they are on Spring Break. With two preschoolers literally running loose in our world, the sparks are flying aplenty. What joy to bask in their excitement at the smallest things in life, which I always seem too busy to fully embrace except when they are around. It is a great deal of hard physical work but gets easier each time they come to visit as they grow more independent and mature emotionally, spiritually, physically, and mentally. Their chatter provides me with enough entertainment to last for a while--at least until the next time they are here! How their parents do this day in and day out amazes me, but we did with our girls and though it was a challenge at times it was always an honor, mixed with humor and joy. And the pride we feel for our children as they now have families of thier own is immense, a true blessing which "explodes" all over us from time to time with such happiness it's hard to put into words.

Speaking of Spring Break, our family used to take advantage of those glorious days of reprieve from the normal routine to take a variety of trips and the memories are precious to my heart. They were fun times of getting out of our ruts and bonding together when life tried desperately to pull us apart. My husband and I were reminiscing about one of those experiences just a couple of days ago, as we laughed at the memory of sitting in a condo on the beach at Galveston huddled around a board game or snuggled down in blankets watching movies compliments of our video camera hookup because outside it was barely thirty degrees and raining with a raging wind, obscuring our view of the ocean. It certainly wasn't funny at the time but it gave our hearts a lift to recall how much fun the four of us had in spite of the circumstances. Again, blessings galore, just not fully reconigzed until the moment had passed.

The definition of blessing is the experience of divine favor which gives happiness and protection from misfortune. How we interpret that can make all the difference in the world--is it God's hand or our hard work and creativity which has brought the "blessing" to fruition? My prayer this week is for you to recognize and experience the multitude of ways, both large and small, in which God has His hand on your life, then receive them with thanksgiving for His goodness! Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Psalms 34:8