I saw in my dream, that I visited Paradise and an angel assumed my hospitality. We walked beside each other in a great hall full of angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first work station and said. "Here is the receiving department. Here we receive all the requests that reach God in the form of prayers". I glanced around the place. It was busy with activity, with so many angels receiving and classifying huge stacks of notes from people around the world. We then proceeded through a long corridor till we reached the second station. My angel told me: "This is the packaging and delivery department. Here the graces and blessings that are requested are brought forward and delivered to those who requested them".
I noticed again how active it was here. Innumerable angels were going back and forth to earth. Finally in the end of a long corridor, we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise only one angel was sitting there, doing basically nothing. "This is the department of the thank you's" whispered my angel, feeling a bit ashamed. "How is it possible? Is there no work here?" I asked. "It is sad" sighed the angel. "After people receive their gifts, very few send their thank you's". "How can one thank God for the blessings received" I asked again. "Simply" he replied, "you only need to say, thank you my God". "And why exactly do we need to thank Him?"
"If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the Bank, in your wallet and some coins on a plate, you are one of the 8% of the people who prosper.
If you wake up in the morning feeling healthier than others with sickness, you are more blessed than those who will not survive this day.
If you have not lived to experience the fear of war, the loneliness of prison, the struggle of torture and the piercing pangs of famine, you are ahead of 700 million people of this world.
If you can pray in a temple without fear of attack, of arrest and execution, some 3 billion people of this world will envy you.
If your parents are still alive and are still married, you are unique.
If you can hold your head high and smile, you are not the rule but the exception, for all those who live with doubt and exasperation.
And if you can read now this text, you received a double blessing because it was given by someone who loves you and because you are luckier than two billion people who do not know and cannot even read".
"I understand. And now what should I do? How can I start?" "Say good morning" my angel smiled, "and count your blessings and pass this message to other people to remind them how blessed they are".
"And don't forget to send your thank you".
Magazine "Tolmi" by Archimandrite Daniel Sapika, Doctor.
