Growing in My Knowledge of Jesus Christ

 In today's first reading, Job 1: 6-22, we read about all of the misfortunes that Job endured: The Sabeans raided his oxen and asses and killed the herdsmen protecting them. Lightning struck his sheep and their shepherds. The Chaldeans seized his camels and kills those tending them . And an horrendous storm collapsed the walls of a house in which his sons and daughters were gathered for a meal together. All were killed by the falling walls. Job's response to all of these losses was: "Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

How do you/do I respond to the losses in our lives?  Are you/am I blessing God's name? or are we cursing it? Are you/am I thanking God for the misfortunes, the disappointments, the seemingly evil things in our world or are we, like the Israelites in the desert, grumbling against God for this "wretched food" (cf. Numbers 21: 4-5)?

We came into this world with nothing and we will leave this world with nothing!  The way that we respond to losses throughout our lives may be the way that we respond to greater losses as we approach our deaths!  We will be asked to let go of everything. All that we will have left to boast about is Jesus Christ and Christ alone!  And we are told that "to know Jesus is heaven." How am I growing in my knowledge of Jesus Christ? What kind of a relationship am I, currently,  building with Jesus?