Even today, I don't have time to order the chaos but thought in this week of thanksgiving, I'd share treasures from others that I've been stewing on.
It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular. Christians in public institutions often see this odd thing happening on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the institution seems to be thankful "in general." It's very strange. It's a little like being married in general. ~ Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
To thank God in all is to bend the knee in allegiance to God Who alone knows all. To thank God in all is to give God glory in all. Is this not our chief end?
When I only give thanks for some things, aren’t I likely to miss giving God glory in most things?
Murmuring thanks isn’t to deny that an event isn’t a tragedy and neither does it deny that there’s a cracking fissure straight across the heart.
Giving thanks is only this: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God. Ann Voskamp
Gratitude is more than delighting in a gift. It is more than feeling happy that you got something you wanted. For example, if you give that ten year-old the electronic game, he might just rip open the package, say, "Wow," and walk away and start bragging how much better his game is than his neighbor's. He might not even give a thought to the kindness you did for him in giving him the game. He delights in getting the gift, but he is still an ungrateful child because his delight is not directed to you the giver. So gratitude is more than delighting in a gift. It is a feeling of happiness directed toward a person for giving you something good. It is a happiness that comes not merely from the gift, but from the act of giving...
At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one's own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest; we are cripples leaning on the cross shaped crutch of Jesus Christ; we are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God's mercy; we are children asleep in heaven's stroller. Natural man hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of all his glory by giving it all to God. Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel any genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God, but only himself. ~ John Piper
And in case there is any question of what ultimately we have been given and the character of the Giver Himself...
He gave us Jesus. Jesus! Gave Him up for us all. If we have only one memory, isn't this one enough? Why is this the memory I most often take for granted? He cut open the flesh of the God-man and let the blood. He washed our grime with the bloody grace. He drove the iron ore through His own vein. Doesn't that memory alone suffice? Need there be anything more...If trust must be earned, hasn't God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow...all gratitude is ultimately gratitude for Christ, all remembering a remembrance of Him. ~Ann Voskamp
May each of you enter not only tomorrow but each day with gratitude for whether you know it or not, all gratitude is ultimately gratitude for Christ, all remembering a remembrance of Him
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me. Isaiah 50:23a
It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4:15
I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30
(All photos are from an annual Autumn Nature Craft Swap with dear sister-friends)
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