Blessings at the Grocery Store

If you have ever lived and shopped overseas you would appreciate this. Foreigners who visit our grocery stores for the first time are truly impressed with the abundance of the materials available. They will say things like, “You can’t find this anywhere else in the world!” Images of people standing in those incredibly long lines waiting to get just a loaf of bread tend to confirm the truth of that statement. I, myself, have seen many foreign markets where people shop in other countries, and they cannot compare with what we have here in the States.

Just consider what your eyes will see when you visit one of our chain grocery stores. There are spices of every description. Fresh vegetables are available from around the world. There is cheese from France and chocolate from Switzerland. There are juices and jams from every state in the union. There are forty feet or more of shelves filled with various types of bread. There is a whole aisle devoted entirely to hundreds of colorful cereals (Is this food?). There are thousands of ingredients to make things from scratch. And, if you are pressed for time (like most of us seem to be), you can buy things to pop in the microwave or oven and prepare in just a few minutes. It truly is incredible! While tens of thousands of people are dying of starvation, we are trying to make the difficult decision of which brand to use!!

We need to remember to count our many blessings. Someone has said, “From what I have been able to read, never has a society had more to choose from at prices more affordable than ours.” You do not have to be an economics major to recognize that we are blessed. Notice this request of the Proverbs writer. “O God, I beg two favors from you before I die: First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs! For if I grow rich, I may become content without God. And if I am too poor, I may steal, and thus insult God’s holy name.” (Proverbs 30:7-9, TLB) If we open our eyes, we can even see blessings at the grocery store.

Ronaldo Ricardo Guzmán