Thanking god for what DOESN'T happen

Recently while i was cross country skiing, i caught an edge and crashed.  i was cruising down a fairly steep trail, in a section where the snow was slick and hard, and i suddenly got going too fast and hit really hard.  The outside of my left thigh landed on top of my ski pole, and it really hurt.  Fortunately, i didn’t tear or break any part of my body or any piece of my equipment.
 
i’m better today, but the upper part of my left IT band is still really tender.  i looked at my leg several times, thinking i would see a bruise, but there isn’t even the slightest discoloration.  So i thanked God for the bruise that didn’t happen.  And while i was pondering how miraculous that seemed, God confirmed that He was indeed there for me during my crash and helped me not get hurt!
 
That led me to incline my ear toward Him to hear what else He might want to say.
 
“I have given you the ability to see, through what doesn’t happen, Who I Am,” i heard without words.  As i believe that God is working, even when nothing seems to be happening, i will see evidence of how He is protecting and blessing us - all of us - showering us with kindness as He carefully guides how things turn out.  Romans 8:28
 
Immediately i was reminded of many things i’d done while i was a young man that were very foolish, some of them very dangerous, yet bad things hadn’t happened.  “The only difference between you and me,” i’ve said to men in jail on a few occasions, “is that you got caught, but i didn’t.”  Of course, getting caught is also a blessing, as some of them would attest, because it offered them a chance to repent.  As for me, the more i consider how incredibly kind our God is, the more i thank Him for all those times He actively cared for me when i didn’t care at all about Him!
 
Of course, there’s no greater example of the unmerited favor we all enjoy than what Jesus did for us on the cross.  His mercy astounds me, and some of that awe overflowed into our men’s prayer time today.  We prayed for a man who lost his leg last week.  i can’t imagine how hard that must be.  Yet we found something to thank God for - that he’s still alive - and we asked God to meet him where he’s at and turn even his horrible loss into a blessing.  Only God can do something like that!
 
As we were wrapping up, another man turned to me and said, but for the grace of God, the same things that had happened to that man could have happened to him.  Through his comment i saw that God was also leading him to be thankful for many things that haven’t happened.
 
Later in the day i got a text from a friend.
 
Friend: Please pray for me.  I have several blood clots in my right leg
 
me: Oh my!  Praying!!
 
Friend: ❤️
 
me: When you texted me, i was journaling about a man we had prayed for this morning, whose leg was amputated last week.  God led me to thank Him that he is still alive, because he has more time to encounter the Lord.
 
Throughout today, over and over, God has been leading me to thank Him for all sorts of things that haven’t happened, because He has given me eyes to see His hand in those things.  So of course i’m now praising God, that you still have your life and both legs!
 
After all, we worship the One Who couldn’t imagine anything better to do, when He faced five thousand hungry mouths to feed, than to thank His Father for only five loaves and two fish.  Out of Jesus’s amazing heart many incredible miracles arise.  In every circumstance He truly is the source and fulfillment of our hope.
 
Friend:  ❤️❤️❤️
 
After we finished texting, God led me to use our computer to look at the total balance of our retirement accounts today, and last year at this same time.  i was amazed to discover how little our nest egg had dropped, considering the huge amount of money we had to withdraw to repair our cabin after the previous winter’s storms.  Over the last year, God also led us to greatly increase our charitable giving and help someone who had a sizable personal debt.  So i cannot explain how we took so many big hits yet sustained such a minor loss.  Surely it must be God at work, showering us with kindness in the midst of life’s storms.  So i thanked Him again, this time for the nest egg that didn’t get squashed when our cabin did.