It Will Surprise You

Recently in Sacrament Meeting we sang the familiar LDS hymn “Count Your Blessings,” and one of the speakers then highlighted this line: “Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done” (see here).  He mentioned how we see this kind of surprise at the Lord’s goodness in the scriptures in the story of Enos who after much prayer and desire was granted the spiritual blessing he sought.  Said he, “Lord, how is it done?” Enos was in awe at what the Lord had done for him and, it seems, surprised at the Lord’s response to his prayer (Enos 1:7).  I think that we see this same kind of attitude in numerous places in the scriptures as different people recognized and remembered the great blessings of the Lord in their lives. 

                Several stories in the scriptures show how people saw the blessings of the Lord in the moment and expressed their joy and surprise at God’s goodness and grace.  For example, when Sarah was given a son in Isaac, she said, “God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.  And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age” (Genesis 21:6-7).  After so many years of not being able to have children, she was completely surprised at what the Lord had done for her.  Similarly when Hannah was finally able to have Samuel her son, she proclaimed her praises to the Lord: “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation” (1 Samuel 2:1).  Lehi showed his gratitude for the Lord’s blessings even before he had fully received them.  While still in the wilderness he exclaimed “But behold, I have obtained a land of promise, in the which things I do rejoice” (1 Nephi 5:5).  It would be about ten years until he actually reached his land of promise and yet he already showed gratitude and rejoicing for the Lord’s blessings.  

                Other scriptural stories show the gratitude and surprise at the Lord’s blessings as they looked back over their experiences and recognized the Lord’s great blessings.  For example, as Adam and Eve looked back on their experience in the Garden of Eden they exclaimed, “Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy….  Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption….  And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God” (Moses 5:10-12).  It was only after they could see with hindsight that they understood the blessings of the Fall.  Ammon was another who looked back over his experienced and expressed his joy and surprise at the Lord’s miracles in their missionary labors: “And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?... Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began….  Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever” (Alma 26:2, 35, 37).  Alma expressed a similar sentiment as he reflected on the blessings the Lord had granted him and the sons of Mosiah: “Now, when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy” (Alma 29:16).  While Joseph Smith was in hiding from the enemies who wanted to take him back to Missouri, he was able to look back on his own miraculous life and see the great blessings God had bestowed in the Restoration: “Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy” (D&C 128:19).

                Other examples could be included here as well, but perhaps the important part is trying to see those blessings that the Lord is giving to us and what He has already done.  And as we do so and ponder on the hand of the Lord in our own lives, we too may be surprised at what the Lord has done.