From Gloria in Excelsis Deo

I nicked this post from Katherine and Chris over at Gloria, click the link above to see their most adorable baby! This is food for thought.

Count Your Blessings

If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

• 60 Asians
• 12 Europeans
• 5 US Americans and Canadians
• 8 Latin Americans
• 14 Africans
• 49 would be female
• 51 would be male
• 33 would be Christian
• 67 would be non-Christian (And the overwhelming majority of these 67 would suffer great persecution if they attempted to become Christian)
• 5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth
• 80 would live in substandard housing
• 24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)
• 67 would be unable to read
• 1 (only one) would have a college education
• 50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation
• 33 would be without access to a safe water supply
• 1 near death
• 2 would be near birth
• 7 people would have access to the Internet

If you have never experienced imprisonment, an agony of tortures or a famine, you are happier, than 500 million persons in this world.

If you are able to go to church, without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are happier, than 3 billion persons living in this world today.

If there is a meal in your refrigerator, if you are dressed and have got shoes, if you have a bed and a roof above your head, you are better off, than 75% of people in this world.

If the father of your child is married to you, provides for you, and your marriage is free of violence, then you are a rarity. If you have a bank account, money in your purse, you belong to 8% of well-provided people in this world.

If you read this text, you are blessed even more, because you are not among those 2 billion people living in the world today which cannot read.

This is the human condition of our world today. If we take a look at the world from this condensed perspective, the need for acceptance and appreciation for the many blessings in our lives becomes much more evident.