Thanks a lot!

Saying "Thanks" is not so simple a gesture. I was thinking about my friend who is teaching her little girls (3 and 5 years old) to be thankful. That's a radical idea in a culture of entitlement. They are learning that what they have comes from outside of themselves, from parents, or ultimately from God. They neither create nor provide for themselves independently of family or community. They are learning to appreciate what they have, and will learn one day to appreciate the effort, thought, or work that went into the provision of material things or in the actions that sustain and support them. Saying thanks acknowledges our mutual dependence on each other in this world, and in the special case of prayer, in our dependence on a being with more power and wisdom than we have to solve our own problems.

Thankfulness is pretty rare when every billboard and most TV ads are aimed at making us dis-satisfied enough with something, or our lack of some essential thing or essence, that we should want to go out immediately and purchase something. Giving thanks is a counter-cultural gesture that affirms joy and contentment with what we have been given. I want to savor each and every gift I am given--juicy, ripe, fuzzy peach or golden cloud. Because part of thankfulness is just recognizing what is a gift. A traffic delay can give you extra moments of silence. An unexpected visitor at the door may become a friend.

The Apostle James said "You have not because you ask not." --I wonder about the times I've missed a hug, or a kiss, or a friendship, because I didn't have the humility to ask someone, eyeball to eyeball, for something I needed or wanted. Thanking my friend, connects us. I acknowledge that she has something I don't have, that I need, that I depend on her to grant. I used to be uncomfortable with the power this gives others in my life. Now I feel like the beggar who greets the day with an empty bowl. I lift it upward and say thanks for what I know by experience, and apprehend by faith, will come into it. Thank you! I thank God, from whom every good and perfect gift comes. And I thank you all, through whom so many spangled gifts have come.