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The e-mail concluded with these words: “Send this to 10 people in the next 15 minutes and blessings will follow you all the days of your life.”

How many of us have received or sent one of these chain letters? Whether they come by snail mail or e-mail, no matter what else they say, they always urge us at the close of the letter to forward the message quickly.

In many ways, these messages are “thinking of you” notes: You look at the address line, see nine other names besides yours, and you think, “Well, my thoughtful friend sent it to me, so I should probably send on this cute e-mail to other friends so they know I am thinking of them.”

But the messages can be frustrating too: Why do I need a singing and dancing penguin to tell people that they are important to me? And what about the blessings? What happens if I don’t send the message along?

In the New Testament, the word blessing or bless-ed is often associated with the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor and the poor in spirit; blessed are those who are hungry and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

In the Old Testament, we also find blessings in Genesis. When Abraham first encounters God, he has a different name, Abram. In the 12th chapter of Genesis, God calls Abram to a new land and promises him blessing, and that in him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

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Visit the study page for ideas for discussion and further reflection.

The longer I live, the more I understand that blessings are the daily miracles we take for granted. They are the blissful things that get us into our groove, that give us our mojo. But if we ignore them, they are the realities that can send us into a tailspin. These nourishing foundations of our lives are often neglected and sometimes belittled, lost in our busy schedules.

We forget blessings. Not to be confused with showy, one time miracles, blessings occur each and every day, whether we recognize them or not.

Blessings require exactly nothing on our part. We can exist without recognizing blessings, although I wouldn’t recommend it. Blessings depend on God’s word and works, not ours. And because we put no work into receiving or maintaining blessings, we take them for granted. We expect them to show up. We get comfortable. But then when it feels like our blessings have been taken away, we worry and turn back to God.

Take, for example, good health. We rarely thank God for our good health when we’re well. But the minute we’re zapped by illness or worse, we’re all about asking for God’s help in making us well again.

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