Thanking God for Blindness and Fleas

Helen Keller was a deaf and blind child born in 1880. Despite all of her hardships, she went on to become a college graduate, author and political activist. She also has a very powerful and memorable quote attributed to her: “I thank God for my handicaps for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.”

Corrie ten Boom was a well known Holocaust survivor who lost both her sister and father in the prison and concentration camps. She is the author of The Hiding Place, and in that excellent book, she writes of reading the New Testament one day with her sister, Betsie, out of view of the prison guards. As they were reading, they came across 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, which says, “pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” She and Betsie then took turns thanking God for their crowded barracks and the annoying fleas.

Fleas? Corrie questioned that. But her sister’s response was this: “Give thanks in all circumstances. . .It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.’”

How do people such as Helen Keller and Corrie ten Boom thank God for their physical disabilities and family loss? How do they thank God for blindness, persecution, and fleas? How do we, as God’s children, stay grateful through the hurt, doubt, and fear of these times-through distressful diagnoses, layoffs, and foreclosures?

Allow me to take advice from author Elizabeth George who said when we face trials and temptations, “acknowledge God’s hand.” Isn’t this what being thankful and grateful is all about during this holiday season? No matter what you face this Thanksgiving, is it possible to parse through the pain and find all that there is to praise about our Lord and acknowledge about His work in our lives? It is in our gratitude that we may be reminded more easily of His many promises to us.

Promises for. . .

Protection (Isaiah 43:1, 2)-”When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

Provision (Matthew 6:25-34)-”Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Peace (Philippians 4:7)-”And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Purpose (Romans 8:28)-”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Look for God’s powerful hand in your life. Thank Him for each and every trace of it. Keep a gratitude journal or spend time every day praising Him for all He does for us, and the ways in which he turns our trials into testimonies of His grace. He’s there. He cares. And “with our prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,” the Bible says, He will offer us everything that we need at the perfect time that we need it, so that we also can “consider it all joy,” James says, when we “encounter various trials.”

Footnotes: Philippians 4:6; James 1:2