Sometimes things just fall into your lap.
Greg Alonz attended baseball games since he was kid. He always sat behind the dugout, glove ready, hoping to catch that elusive foul ball. For more than 1,000 games he waited for the rare opportunity to grab a ball hit near him.
When the Oakland A’s came to town, Greg took his dad and his wife, Joanne, to the game. In the first inning, the very first batter, Ricky Henderson, finally did what Greg had been waiting for. He hit a high foul pop-up toward Greg’s seat. After so many years of waiting, Greg jumped to his feet to grab the ball. His dad also leapt up.
As the ball was almost within reach, Greg decided that he should let his dad have the honor. He stepped back for his father to make the catch. Unfortunately, at the same instant, his dad had the same idea and stepped back for his son to have the ball.
They both watched in horror as the ball fell between them. It landed in Joanne’s lap. Looking up at Greg with a grin she said, “I thought you said catching a foul ball was tough.”
While we work hard for many things that are ours, it is also true that many good things land in our lap. It’s easy to take those things for granted.
I live in a house someone else designed and built 75 years ago. It’s in a city that someone else founded. I serve a church someone else started in 1948. I eat brownies with pecans that fall from trees someone planted before I was born.
On a regular basis, clean socks appear in my dresser drawer. Food magically appears in our refrigerator. I type this on a computer that someone else invented with hands that I neither produced nor purchased. When I drive down roads I didn’t pave, I take for granted that those going the other direction will stay on their side of the road. I give no thought to whether I will have air to breath, or rain to nurture the food I eat.
What things just fall into your lap? Better question: Who ultimately provides all these blessings?
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), because good things just fall into our laps every day. The least we can do is be grateful.

Keith Wishum is minister, Williams Road Church, Americus.