Christmas is over. Packages have been opened. Carols sung. And way too much turkey has been eaten! Maybe it is a good time to stop and just count our blessings!

I am not talking about those specific miracles or gifts that God gives to us individually. I am talking about the grace that descends from heaven on everyone regardless of their willingness to make Christ the Lord of their life.

A few years ago, one of the students at our school asked me if God blessed unbelievers. (I think he was worried about his grandparents!) And I replied, “yes!” Although the Lord isn’t under any kind of moral or spiritual constraint to bless those who don’t serve Him, He still does so, every single day!

The scripture declares that the rain falls on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). We call that COMMON GRACE. One definition I saw stated that common grace is “the undeserved blessings God pours out on the entire human race without discrimination or bias between one person and another.”

Common grace impacts us all! We can’t miss it. Gravity keeps us in place. Oxygen keeps us all alive. Humor makes us all laugh. Animals capture our hearts. Love happens all around us.  We are all blessed beyond measure.

God is busy every day showcasing His love and affection for us all! So why don’t some of us acknowledge Him? Why are we so slow to see Him at work all around us?

Years ago, a Russian astronaut came back from a space trip and declared that they did not see God anywhere in outer space. C.S. Lewis had a comeback for that astronaut. He said, “To some God is discoverable everywhere; to others, nowhere. Those who do not find Him on earth are unlikely to find Him in space. But send a saint up in a spaceship and he’ll find God in space as he found God on earth. Much depends on the seeing eye.”

So maybe during this quiet week, we can all take the time to sharpen our “seeing eye.” Let’s look carefully around our lives and see the Lord’s fingerprints everywhere. Blessings abound, we just need to make sure we recognize them as coming from His hand.

Some of those blessings are “regular things,” things like sunshine, fresh water, air that fills our lungs. Let’s make sure as we count our blessings we include those. God is so good to us all!