Grateful to God

Last Friday I crossed paths with a particular homeless man.  Here I'll call him "Don."  Don told me that his relative, who lived a couple of hours away, was dying.  He said he really wanted to get to say "goodbye" to his relative before she died.  Yet he didn't know how he was going to get there to see her, since he had no money to pay for a bus ticket or a train ticket.  

Today I saw Don again.  I asked him if he got to see his relative again before she died.  He was able to make the trip, since someone paid for his trip.  Yet he said he didn't make it in time.  She died a couple of hours before he got there.  

While he was gone, his campsite was ravaged.  Someone stole much of what he had.  Also, we've been getting a good deal of rain here in Redwood City.  Rain soaked much of what was left of his possessions.  He said he still has his bicycle because he had hidden it in a large bush.  

After I parted ways with Don, I thought about how he has gone through much misfortune in the last few days.  In contrast, I considered how I have such a comfortable life.  I gave some thought to how it can be so easy to complain.  It can be habitual not to pray and not to be grateful to God for how incredibly God blesses us.  Thank You, God, for everything we ever have had, everything we have, and everything we ever will have.  Amen.