Thankfulness for What You Could Not Afford

Author unknown - Thanks to Jalisa Wenger in Pennsylvania for sending this.

Suppose God charged us for the rain, or put a price on a songbird’s strain, of music, the dawn, mist on the plain.

How much would autumn landscapes cost, or a window etched with winter’s frost, and a rainbow’s glory so quickly lost?

Suppose the people had to pay to see the sunset’s crimson play, and the magic stars on the Milky Way.

Suppose it was fifty cents a night to watch the pale moon’s silvery light, or watch a gull in graceful flight.

How much, I wonder, would it be worth to smell the good, brown fragrant earth in spring?  The miracle of birth-

How much do you think people would pay for a baby’s laugh at the close of the day?
Suppose God charged us for them, I say.

Suppose we paid to look at the hills, for the rippling mountain hills, or the mating song of a whippoorwill,
Or the curving breakers of the sea, for grace and beauty and majesty.  And all these things God gives us free.

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. ~ 1Timothy 6:17-19