Blessed Are The Poor

Here it is the first of October and the change of the seasons is well under way. Autumn is the opposite of Spring, but both have a lot in common. Weather patterns change from hot to warm or cold to warm. We get more rain than any other time of the year, which still doesn’t add up to a whole lot. Then there are the grasshoppers, crickets, butterflies and birds, birds, birds, all migrating to more compatible regions of the globe. For the past two weeks it’s been the crickets getting into everything and the birds roosting everywhere. I think crickets are born in litters, a million at a time. There’re sneaky little critters, hiding in wait for a door to open and then like an invading army they flood in, hopping every which way, making them impossible to capture. For years the birds seem to like congregating by the hundreds at a certain highway intersection here in town. Even though the field they’ve always gathered in has been developed and paved over, they still use the area. I drive past there early every morning and the remaining trees and parking lot are literally blanketed with blackbirds, all seemingly to be squawking at the same time, sounding like a group of conventioneers on a smoke break. Oh well, in less than a month they’ll all be gone, until the Spring time equinox.
A mother was telling her daughter what her own childhood was like. “We used to ice skate outside on a frozen pond,” she said. “I had a swing made from an old tire that hung from a huge oak tree in our front yard. We rode our pony and we picked wild raspberries in the woods.” The little girl, wide eyed taking this in, listened intently to all her mother told her. At last she said, “I wish I’d gotten to know you sooner!”
[Matthew 5: 3] Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The word blessed means: happy. Well; you say, I don’t understand why the poor are supposed to be happy. Jesus spoke not of the physical person, but the spirit. The poor in spirit are the opposite of the proud, conceited, arrogant and disdainful. Only the poor in spirit will enter the kingdom of God. Maybe if we look at spirit this way. When we say an animal has spirit we look at the animal in two different ways. It is considered to have a mind of its own, self-willed and dominant, (high spirited) or it is dependent, loving and submissive, (low spirited). Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is not for the “high spirited” individual. Commentary, William Barkley, has this to say: “Blessed is the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God.” ‘If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his whole trust in God, there will enter into his life two things. He will become completely detached from things, for he will know that things have not got it in them to bring happiness or security. He will then become completely attached to God, for he will know that God alone can bring him help, hope and strength. The man who is poor in spirit is the man who realizes that things mean nothing, and God means everything.” A Christian, whether rich or poor, must have the spirit of poverty. He must possess his wealth as if he possessed it not. He must be able to resign it at any moment without regret. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the lord.” (Job 1: 21) Become poor in spirit. Submit yourself to God. It won’t be long before you’ll say, “Lord, I wish I’d gotten to know you sooner.”