I am normally a person of action and not reaction but I must confess some things I heard today on TV have moved me to write this column.
I got up early this Thanksgiving Day and had the TV on as I checked my e-mail from our home computer. There is a TV beside the computer and I had on the news. The commentator was referring to today as ‘Turkey Day’! I was amazed. I then went channel surfing and discovered the same use of the word several times.
Now words have meanings and meanings and intent reflect the heart. I began to ponder this as I carried the cross this morning in this local area.
It is very difficult for some people to express thanks for anything!
Many of us are becoming very selfish and ungrateful with a total rejection of ‘manners’.
Almost gone are ‘table blessings’. This is for those of you more modern types that may have never heard of it. That is a time before or after a meal where those eating pause to say thanks to God for the food. I saw in the newspaper yesterday a list of things to say as a so-called prayer for Thanksgiving Day. Most of them were some kind of rhyme that did not even mention God.
Almost gone is the simple saying of ‘thanks’ when someone does something for you. Most today do not even acknowledge anything. You pay the restaurant bill and you do not even get a ‘thanks’. You wait for someone to enter the elevator and they rush in with no acknowledgement of the action. You open the door for someone and they do not say ‘thanks’. You do a favor for someone at work and often there is not even a ‘thanks’ for the action. The worker in the supermarket bags your food and puts it in the basket for you and we rush away with not even a kind word of ‘thanks’. A mother works for hours preparing a good meal and the husband and children sit down, eat it and all leave without a word of ‘thanks’ to the mother, much less to God. A friend comes over to fix a flat tire or computer problem and still not even that simple word ‘thanks’.
Now I think that saying ‘thanks’ or not saying ‘thanks’ is a clear reflection of a person’s heart. It is a public mirror of the heart.
Now people who have trouble saying ‘thanks’ to others will certainly have a problem saying ‘thanks’ to God.
In a day when ‘self’ and ‘personal achievement’ and ‘self sufficient’ rules it is sure hard for many to thank God when they think they did all the work! Ha
Just know, however, that this is nothing new. Please read on and you will see the shocking story that even amazed Jesus.
“Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
So when He saw them, He said to them,
“Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,
and fell down on his face at His feet,
giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
So Jesus answered and said,
“Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
“Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:12-19 in the Holy Bible
Just a note, even Jesus gave thanks to the Father before He ate:
And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.
John 6:11in the Holy Bible
I pray that each of us think and search our minds to see if we have become slack in expressing thanks both to God and to people.
Our deepest thanks to Him, Jesus “who loved me, and gave himself for me.’
(Galatians 2:20 in the Holy Bible)
“Thank you Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.’
Pilgrim followers of Jesus,
Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1