It Happened to Us

My mother used to make me clean my plate every night.  Her rationale was there were children in China starving; therefore, we should not waste food.  My question was just because someone else doesn’t have enough food why do I have to overeat?  Child developmentalists today do not recommend making children clean their plates as long as the children realize there will be no dessert in place of the peas they choose not to eat,
 
This all came flooding back to me this evening while watching families streaming out of Aleppo telling stories of mass executions of families.  Here I sit in my Archie Bunker chair in a warm house with no viable threat to my safety.  One of my students complained this week about something being unfair.  The issue was trivial.  Life is not fair.  Why should we have so much?  Why should we have billion dollar submarines electronically walling us off from our enemies?  We have more chance of drowning in a bathtub than being harmed by a terrorist.
 
There are so many things in the universe that are not fair.  We complain that it isn’t fair that we have to suffer because of Adam and Eve’s mistakes.  Yet I don’t hear anyone complaining that because of one man’s righteousness all can be forgiven and given the gift of eternal life.  See Romans 5:19.  
  
I don’t want to make anyone feel guilty about their blessings.  We should rejoice and be thankful for all we have.  At the same time we shouldn’t forget that our opportunities are not necessarily because we made wonderful choices in life.  We didn’t ask to be born in America or Sweden.  It happened to us.