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All of us have something that’s missing, don’t we? What I’ve come to learn—and am still learning—is that instead of being controlled by the missing pieces, I can be thankful for them. I emphasize that I am learning this principle of being thankful for the missing pieces. But as I’ve started to grasp this truth, I’ve found such freedom and contentment.
I’d like to share a poem with you, which really helped me start down this road of being thankful for the missing pieces. I first read it several years ago, and I re-read it quite often. The poem uses old-fashioned words, but the truth is still very relevant:
An easy thing, O power Divine,
To thank Thee for these gifts of Thine!
For summer’s sunshine, winter’s snow,
For hearts that kindle, thoughts that glow;
But when shall I attain to this:
To thank Thee for the things I miss?
For all young fancy’s early gleams,
The dreamed-of joys that still are dreams,
Hopes unfulfilled, and pleasures known
Through others’ fortunes, not my own,
And blessings seen that are not given,
And ne’er will be – this side of heaven.
Had I, too, shared the joys I see,
Would there have been a heaven for me?
Could I have felt Thy presence near
Had I possessed what I held dear?
My deepest fortune, highest bliss,
Have grown, perchance, from things I miss.
Sometimes there comes an hour of calm;
Grief turns to blessing, pain to balm;
A Power that works above my will
Still leads me onward, upward still;
And then my heart attains to this:
To thank Thee for the things I miss.
-Thomas Wentworth Higginson
When I first read this poem, I began to ask myself, “Where would you be today if you had everything you wanted, if there were no missing pieces in your life?” And it was as though God drew back a curtain to let me see how having everything I wanted could have been disastrous for me.
Did you ever think about that? Without some of those missing pieces in your life, where do you think you would be? Isn’t it true that often the missing pieces are the things that draw us into a close and trusting relationship with our Heavenly Father?