why that verse?

So, I normally wouldn't feel the need but since it came up I figured I'll take the opportunity to share my thought process...

On the Thanksgiving Eve blog I shared this verse,

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24

After posting I was asked, why of all the verses I could post about thanksgiving did I post this verse?

I guess as I as standing in my kitchen, warm, clothed, a roof over my head, my heart full of joy I was humbled thinking we are the rich, America is the rich. As I stood in my kitchen, with running water, clean sleeping children in their beds comfortably tucked under their blankets... I thought.

Yes, I shop on a budget, I cut corners, there never seems to be enough money to go round, but we are the rich. We have shelter over our heads, we do not know true hunger- starvation.

You may say... but I can't buy my children all they want for Christmas, I live in a modest home, I work hard for a small amount of money, we struggle, I am not rich?

My car may not be new or expensive but I have a car to get me from here to there, even if I didn't public transportation is available to us in America.

Healthcare, while I complain about the hours I spend on the phone with insurance... I read a story about a woman in Africa who was brutally attacked because of the way she looked, the attackers cut her arms off and she left her to die, with no hospitals to go to, her mother was able to stop the bleeding with a shovel pulled from the fire, mend her wounds, after months of fighting infection she did survive. We, America, have access in emergent needs, it's not perfect but we aren't a village in Africa, that's for sure.

We are the rich...

As I stood there, smelling peanut butter cookies baking in the oven, I began to think about the winter morning I took Sophia for a walk barefoot. She was only three. There was a shoe drive at church and I explained to her how some people don't have shoes. We walked along the driveway she asked if I would hold her, her feet were cold. I remember wanting her to understand that feeling, to know that others are less fortunate and we must think beyond ourselves, beyond our homes and our communities, to help others in need.

We are the rich...

Sometimes God humbles us, He reveals to us a truth that can make us uncomfortable, only to make us better.

So, this verse may have made some wonder why? and maybe even a little uncomfortable?And maybe I didn't do a good job explaining, but as God revealed it to me I wanted to share it with you.

We are the rich.

In writing that verse I was hoping that others would be reminded, the same way I was reminded, where these thanksgiving blessings come from? Our Lord, He deserves all the glory.

"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:6