My wife, my kids and I listed everything we were thankful for on a recent trip to Duluth. We said we were thankful for new friends and old, family near and far, a nice home to live in, turkey at grandma’s house. We were thankful for our little dog Wesley, for schools, teachers and books, for doctors and nurses and even shots that will help keep us from being sick.
We were thankful for the North Shore, for God’s beautiful creation—rocks, trees, animals and the big lake—and for trails to bike and walk on. Michelle was thankful for new insoles. I was thankful for my eyesight. Elijah thanked God for snow, and Sophia said, “I thank God for everything!”
That got me thinking. Sometimes I’m not quite as thankful as my Sophia. I was drawn to two of my favorite characters in the Bible, King David and the Apostle Paul, both who lived lives of thankfulness.
King David is credited with 75 of the 150 psalms in the Hebrew Bible. Throughout them, David can hardly contain his gratitude for all that God had done for him. He had been a lowly shepherd boy who’d faced the enemy’s best soldier and come away victorious. Yet as a young man he’d lived as a fugitive and as king he dealt with failings and disappointments, palace intrigue, family discord, and rebellion. Still David cries out in Psalm 103.
Let all that I am
praise the Lord;
with my whole heart,
I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am
praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good
things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love
and tender mercies.
He fills my life
with good things.
My youth is renewed
like the eagle’s!
The Apostle Paul in the New Testament has sometimes been called the apostle of thankfulness. Over and over again in his letters to the Christians of the ancient world he thanks God. He thanks God for his brothers and sisters in Christ, for their hospitality and faithfulness, and most of all for God’s great mercy to him through Christ. Paul teaches the early Christians (and us) to give thanks for everything, in all times and in all places. All this from a man who was beaten and driven out of town after town, who suffered shipwreck, hunger, and exposure, and who wrote several of his letters from prison.
Here are just two examples:
But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:57).
In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you (I Thessalonians 5:18).
Paul, David, and Sophia teach me that I’ve got a lot to be thankful for and that thanksgiving is as much an attitude, even in the face of adversity, as it is an action.
Sophia penned this little poem in school last week:
Thanksgiving is a time to be
thankful
Thanksgiving is a time to
enjoy company of family and
friends
Thanksgiving is a time
to show love, joy, and
thankfulness to God and
each other.
Thank you North Shore neighbors for welcoming us into your community. We wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Daren Blanck, pastor of Zoar Church in Tofte, a former Wilderness Canoe Base guide/counselor, and a student of Beyond the River Academy, a ministry program of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.
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