Pilgrims and the List

Thanksgiving is coming--one of my favorite times of the year! In fact, if you stopped by our house right now, you would be surrounded by pilgrims and indians in nearly every room. If I could, I'd put out all those pilgrims the first day of september (but my husband insists I wait until Oct. 1st so we don't look like dingbats--but it's a painful wait for me!). How can you not love the pilgrims? Starving to death those first harsh winters, sick and dying by the score, desperately trying to scratch out a way to survive on those harsh, unforgiving shores in the freezing cold. No warm, inviting homes, no bathrooms, no hot showers, no hot food, no clean, dry clothes, no antibiotics or cough medicine, no extended families to comfort and encourage, no schools, no libraries, no stores or restaurants to go grab a bite of food or a roll of toilet paper, no vacations or rest breaks. Just backbreaking toil, gnawing hunger, unrelenting disease, and discouraging and frightening prospects of a tenuous tomorrow.

And yet, against all odds, against all reason, they rejoiced. They found grounds to thank the Lord they knew had brought them to these shores and would somehow, someway, bring them through. They chose gratitude over despair, and so I gaze at the little pilgrim lady on my table holding her Bible in one hand and a bowl of vegetables in the other, and I give thanks for such a legacy of strength and faith and hope. If they could give thanks, how can I not do likewise?

There is just nothing like intentionally slowing down for a moment and giving thanks. We are always rushing around, busy, efficient, sometimes overwhelmed, preoccupied, and self-absorbed that we miss the continuous stream of blessings and gifts sent our way from our ever faithful Lord. And when we forget to be thankful, life can grind us down and wear us out. Thankfulness, on the other hand, transforms the mundane into the miraculous, the long and laborious into the suddenly sacred.

Sarah Ban Breathnach expressed it this way: "Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." Amen. And that golden bridge of praise carries us from despair and desperation to the other side of hope and expectation that our all-wise and loving God is still in control and working powerfully even when we cannot see Him or feel Him.

But we must make the choice of gratitude over grumpiness. Being thankful over busyness or worry or preoccupation. Gratitude, I have found, is not my default position. Rather, I tend far too quickly to complain or criticize or fear. The Scriptures are the surest antedote to replace selfish and prideful discontentment with joyous thankfulness. Everyday now at our house, we eat on placemats proclaiming God's words of gratitude and grace: "Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name." (I Chron. 16:8) "Let us come before Him with thanksgiving." (Ps. 95:2) "... glorify Him with thanksgiving." (Ps. 69:30) Open your Bible and I daresay you will be hard pressed not to find a verse on gratitude and praise--they are everywhere!

Why does God urge us to be thankful? Well, of course, because He is an awesome, omnipotent, infinite, gracious, merciful, loving Father and so is deserving of all praise. But more than that, He knows that gratitude transforms His people and brings them joy, even in the midst of the hardest of circumstances. I have seen it over and over again in my life--a whispered word of thanks, a chorus of a praise song, a sudden recognition of a seemingly common little blessing (like the hoot of the owl or the cardinal's splash of crimson on the greenway)--and the darkness is dispelled and in floods the Light.

Recently I have been reading the remarkable little book, One Thousand Gifts, and the author shares her own epiphany about the transformative power of gratitude. She began keeping a list of all the daily gifts she was experiencing in her life, for as she declares, "... joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy." And how many countless gifts He lavishes upon us every single day that we completely miss or ignore! The cool breeze of autumn, the smell of fires, the crunching of leaves underfoot, the warmth of the sun, the giggles of a child, the consolation of a friend. Warm chocolate chip cookies (well, chocolate of any kind whatsoever!), hot baths, loyal dogs, comfortable shoes, steaming coffee, great books, soaring birds, lilting music, family and friends...

Don't miss the gift just because of it's size or commoness. One more quote from One Thousand Gifts: "Do not disdain the small. The whole of the life--even the hard--is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole... There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up."

So today, I am giving thanks for the Almighty, all powerful God of the great and of the infinitesimal. For we serve an unfathomable God who raises the dead and heals the desperately ill, but Who also allows me to hug my children and chat with my husband and hear the song of the mockingbird and eat that terrible-but-O-so-delicious fair food, and read to my 10 year old in bed, and laugh with a dear friend, and take a deep breath, and observe the brilliant blue sky, and walk with my sweet old dog, and open my Bible to be fed and restored and revived again and again. Who could deserve such a life? Who could ever warrant such grace as He has poured out upon every one of us over and over--in His Son, in His blessings, even in the challenges He allows in each of our lives.

Thank You, thank You, thank You, Lord! How about you--will you start your list today? Will you join Paul in "giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father?" (Eph. 5:20) He wrote that in prison--what's your excuse? Take a moment right now to ponder and praise, and start your own list. And to God, the gracious, generous Gift-giver, be the all the glory.