Thanksgiving is just around the corner.
Apart from the anticipated great food , turkey stuffing , pumpkin pie , I like the moment when people go around the table and say few words on what we are thankful for. Some people thank wonderful parents , those who are present or gone , we thank our children, spouses and God .
I am always amazed how few words of appreciation could bring tears in your eyes . Imagine the kind words of a spouse , soft and encouraging. It is beautiful.
The great Mcfee Brown, a well known theologian , once said that the entire Christian gospel may be summed up in one word “grace.”
That God is gracious to us, that God loves us no matter how unlovable we may be, that God visits us in the midst of distresses and identifies wholly with us
And he goes on to say , if grace is the distinctive word to describe God’s attitude toward us, there is also a word that describes the nature of the response we are called upon to make. That word is “gratitude.” Attitude of gratitude, that is what is demanded of us .
We live in a society where gratitude and appreciation is in short supply . We hardly appreciate things anymore. Our relationship with God is so transactional that we hardly praise God . Praise,” Walter Brueggemann says, is both “a duty and a delight.”
Praise is due to you, O God,” the psalmist wrote.
You visit the earth and water it. . . . You crown the year with bounty.
Abundance . . .
Pastures overflow, meadows clothe themselves with flocks, valleys deck themselves with grain.
This coming Thursday , whether alone or with family and friends , may you say words of praise whether out of abundance or scarcity.