Thankful Thursday...a day late

I didn't have time to blog yesterday, but since my husband made a point to comment about my lack of TT, I'm posting a day late and am going to write as if it were Thursday.

Today I'm thankful for two things (well a lot actually, but I'll focus on two). First and to a lesser extent, electricity. Only a week ago we were without it and I thought I could get some things done around the house without the distraction of computer or TV (we don't watch it much, but still). Then I quickly realized there wasn't much I could do in a modern age without electricity. No vacuuming, laundry, running the dishwasher (though I could hand wash dishes- yay!) or a host of other duties. Gone are the days of handwashing clothes in a water basin with a wash board and hanging them to dry. No plunging and scrubbing-- as I learned from Far and Away-- just the push of a button (essentially).
Going off topic for a moment: why then with all our modern conveniences-- to make life easier and create more time for ourselves (as if that's truly possible)-- are we more distracted than ever? Perhaps it's because the conveniences. Aha! Exactly what are these conveniences freeing us up for? I did use some of my powerless 34 hours to catch up on bible reading- why can't I do that  anyway? 'Cause I'm blogging...
I digress. Back to point one. I'm grateful to the hard workers of the power company for getting us up and running so quickly! Quite an amazing feat considering the circumstances surrounding the outage. I'm thankful today not only that my electricity is on but that I can afford such a luxury.

 (when it came back on)

Second and more important is seeing the hands and feet of God in motion. There is such a strong sense of community around here and so many people are lending a hand to move debris, donate clothes, food, water, baby items, cooking and serving hot meals to those affected by last week's tornados. THIS is God's glory being shown in the midst of tragedy! Again, why does it take something this monstrous to wake us up? Why does only major destruction and heartache lead a community to reach out a helping hand? And that's not to say we never help each other, but these needs existed before last Wednesday and will continue to exist well beyond the rebuilding of these communities and lives. Why, especially as Christians, do we not answer this call EVERY DAY?!!!! I mean yea, we help people and donate money, clothes, etc. But not with the urgency that we feel after something like this.
I digress again. I am still so excited to see God's people at work through this... so many working tirelessly to help those in need especially when they're not doing it to call attention to themselves. This is what Christ's teachings are about and it's wonderful to see it in action.