The Real Blessing of Enduring to the End

The following is an exchange I had once with a friend. 

My initial message to him:

I have found that most of the recognition of great blessings for me has occurred when I have been able to look back at my life and realize where I am compared to where I was previously. I believe in "enduring to the end" in a different way than most, probably, as I see it as the only way to see the height climbed - when I get to a vista and can look back on the beauty of my life. If I don't endure the climb, I don't get to see those vistas - and I don't realize how blessed I've been.

Don't get me wrong. Sometimes, I have experienced blessings quickly - even immediately. However, the most breathtaking blessings have been hidden by my myopia and only have come into view with some distance.  

His response:

So do you credit God for providing the view to you personally or is it that you are grateful you have climbed high enough to see what is already there, waiting to be viewed by those who ascend to your level? By that, I mean...the former is more evidence of God's intervention in your personal situation, and the latter is still evidence of God's love for you but with less direct intervention (as I see it).

My response to him:

It is both for me.

It's not so much others "ascending to my level" as much as it is pausing to look back occasionally and realizing the blessings that are visible only as an accumulation of otherwise invisible blessings - seeing the beauty of the forest by stepping outside the cover of the trees.

Some blessings have been obvious and immediate; most have not - and some of the most obvious have not been immediate. Two, in particular, took multiple years to occur and be recognizable as blessings. If I had not "endured to the end", in a sense, I would never have experienced or recognized those particular blessings - which really are two of the most astounding manifestations of God's existence and love I have experienced.