Unknown Blessings (Mark's Shout Out)

Before the Thanksgiving break I led the chapel lesson for the entire preschool. I really don't know what, if anything the kids got out of my lesson, but as I was preparing it, something really struck me. We all need to be thankful to God for the obvious, such as the trees and the sun and our families, etc. Those are givens and most people readily acknowledge God's part in them. But what I learned is that there is so much more that we need to be thankful for, that we don't even know about yet, or perhaps never will. These unknowns in our lives, are huge blessings we are unaware of, but somehow God has orchestrated them that way as a means of taking care of us. For instance, there are amazing functions of our body that keep our health on track, even though we are blissfully unaware that they are even going on. The earth's rotation--what a blessing!! What if one day it stopped?! We should always thank God for the blessings in our lives that we don't see on a regular basis.
Tucker and I share a good friend named Mark. We all became acquainted years ago when I taught his children and became friends with his wife. Mark is the typical 30 something father of three. He plays with the kids out in the yard, is always doing some home improvement project and enjoys a good beer with friends from time to time. He is the kind of person who you feel like you have known for years the very first time you meet him. He's just an all around good guy.
Mark is one of those blessings that too many people are unaware of.
He is an Army Ranger. Since Tucker and I have known him, he has been deployed TEN TIMES to the Middle East! 10! He puts himself in unthinkable circumstances so that people who are completely unaware of his service, can have a better life. He has never made a big production of the fact that this is his "job," it just is the way that it is.
This is a man with three young children and a wife who is also his best friend, and he constantly steps up to the plate for all of us. It really is kinda amazing.
I know that the world is made of up all kinds of people. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and we all have things that we can offer to the world. What an enormous blessing it is, that there are people like Mark in our world who are willing to make their life's work protecting others! We are always reminded to "support our troops," but I really think it is important to remember that that is not an ambiguous notion. These "troops" are the men and women mowing their lawns on Sunday afternoons, and running behind their child's bike as they learn to ride. They are so normal yet so extraordinary.
Their are hundreds of thousands of these men and women in our country. They all have a life outside of the military. They all have people they love and places they would rather be when it is time to deploy. But they make the same decision to go and be an unknown blessing to millions of us at unknown risks to themselves. God has given these people the courage to put themselves behind their duty. We must remember to be thankful for each one of these unknown blessings.