What do you do when you have lost something or misplaced it? Panic? Frustration? And when you find it, what do you do? At my age losing or misplacing things is routine. But when I breathe a prayer to the Holy Spirit and calm down, wonder of wonders, it comes to me where the lost is and , finding it, I say a spontaneous and joyful thanks to God out loud! Which brings me to my point: how often do we remember to thank and praise God through our day? For every little thing?  I believe his hand is there even in the “ small stuff.” 

The transformation of anxiety over the lost object to joy over finding it leads me to the gospel from Luke. Jesus the table-turner ( both literally and figuratively!) has spent the night on the mountaintop praying. He comes down and names his apostles, then is faced with a huge crowd of followers and people from many regions seeking him. What follows is a series of blessings describing the joy which will be felt by the less fortunate- the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are persecuted because of their belief in Jesus-they will receive the opposite of what they suffer now. They will leap for joy! ( I love that image!) The tables will be turned as well for the rich-those who “ have it all” will realize the turned table-deprivation. Let us hope that leads them to hunger for Jesus and get their place at the right table- the table of God.

Let us pray that we may praise and thank God even in our sufferings, knowing in our heart he will supply all we need.