Welcome to the daily Chizuk (encouragement). Sometimes people feel that Hashem owes them. They say, “I came to shul (synagogue), or I learned Torah, I pray, I do chesed (kindness).” But if we really thought about it honestly, we would see how off this thinking is.
I once heard a mashal (parable) from Rabbi Rietti to explain. He said there was once a 12-year-old boy. He comes running down the steps in the morning, trying to catch his bus. He grabs his breakfast and leaves a note for his mother on the counter. He says goodbye and runs out the door. The mother wipes her hands on her apron and starts reading the note: “For mowing the yard, $5. For making my bed, $1. For playing with my little brother, 75 cents. For taking out the garbage, $1. For a good report card, $5. And for raking the leaves, $2. Total, $14.75.”
Now, what would we do if our child did that to us? We would probably say, “He’s charging me to play with his little brother? What an ingrate!” But this mother had a different idea. She had many images passing through her mind. She turned over the paper and started to write: “For nine months, I carried you. For growing inside of me, no charge. For the nights I sat up with you, doctored you, prayed for you, no charge. For the time and tears that you caused through the years, no charge. For the nights filled with dread and the worries ahead, no charge. And when you add all that up, the sum total of all my love to you, son, no charge.”
The son comes home from school. He starts to read the note, and with a tear swelling up in his eye, he turns it over and writes, “Paid in full.”
People say to Hashem, “Hashem, I came to shul today. You owe me. Oh, Hashem, I helped a family from Israel today,” and Hashem could say back, “For giving you a brain, no charge. For giving you healthy organs, no charge. For giving you two eyes, no charge.” Do we know how much chesed goes into our eyes? The eye has about 100 million receptors, and each takes the image, transforms it into an electrical impulse, and passes it up to the brain, where it can be deciphered. The connectors or nerves that go from the eye to the brain number only 50,000, and they never get clogged. And this is all happening at lightning speed.
To put it into simple terms, I just saw a list of the best digital cameras in the world. They sell for $40,000 to $50,000, and they range between 60 and 80 megapixels. The human eye has about 600 megapixels, and Hashem gave us two.
We say in the Asher Yatzar that Hashem is “Rofei chol basar u'mafli la'asot.” Hashem heals us by removing the waste, and He does it in a wondrous way. What’s the wondrous way? The body automatically separates the part of the food that we need and gets rid of the waste. Who is paying for that? Instead of having the attitude of “What have you done for me lately?” let us appreciate all the kindness that Hashem is constantly doing for us. Have a great day.