Being Thankful

This is a week to be thankful.  There are a lot of things to be thankful for, of course.  We can be thankful for material possessions, and there’s nothing really wrong with that.  It’s good, actually to be thankful that we have food and shelter and clothing when many people don’t.  It’s good to remember that we’re fortunate and blessed to have things like that.  We should do what we can to see that others have them, too, and I’m sure many of you do.

We can be thankful for family and friends, too.  It’s important that we don’t take the people in our lives for granted.  It can be easy to do that, you know.  When we see people every day, when they’re a consistent part of our lives, we sometimes just assume they always will be.  We don’t stop and think about how fortunate and blessed we are to have those people in our lives.  We should stop and be thankful for that.  And we should, to the extent we can, be one of those people who is always there for others, too.

And, of course, we should be thankful to God.  There’s no wrong way to be thankful to God, really, but I think sometimes we don’t do it as well as we should.  Here’s what I mean.  Sometimes, we’re thankful for all the things God has done for us.  Or, we may be thankful for the things God is doing for us now.  We may even, as an expression of faith and trust, be thankful for the things God is going to do, because we know God is still active and that God is always faithful.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with any of that.  I would suggest, though, that we make a mistake when we limit our thanks to God to the things that God does.  We should also remember to thank God for who God is.  The things God does for us are directly related to who God is.  

God is lots of things, of course.  God is holy.  God is righteous.  God is perfect.  God is all-knowing.  God is all-seeing.  God is all-wise.  God is all-powerful.  God is almighty.  God is caring.  God is compassionate.  God is gracious.  God is forgiving.  God is merciful.  God is love.  God, truly, is more than we can ever express in language.

And we need to remember to be thankful for that.  Because if God was not all of those things, God would not do the things God does.  God would not have given us the life God has given us.  God would not have given us the chance for salvation and eternal life God has given us.

And that, of course, is the most important thing for which we should be thankful.