THANKFUL IN ALL THINGS

The Bible tells me to give thanks in everything. That's not always easy. There are some things I am more thankful than others - like good health, a caring church, a loving wife. I certainly am more thankful for those things than asparagus or income taxes or the Pittsburgh Steelers.

On a very human level thankfulness is not always a prerequisite to necessity. My mother used to try guilting me into eating food that I found distasteful. "Think of all the starving children in Bangladesh." Initially, I tried not thinking of them at all, "Name one!" I'd declare defiantly. Then when she got a missionary visitng our home to actually name several dozens Bangladeshis, I resorted to "Then let's send it to them."

The fact of the matter is that I needed to eat--and to eat healthily. Being thankful that I COULD so did not impress my unregenerate little heart. There were some things that I refused to be thankful for. I still had to eat them.

But the ability to be thankful for all things is actually the mark of a person who has a new heart and new mind because of their encounter with Jesus Christ. When we realize that God's gift comes to us even when we do not deserve it, we begin to think that thankfulness comes because we have a life at all--and because we are blessed even before we understand the necessity of the blessing. When someone loves even before we love ourselves, and cares for us even when we care only about ourselves--we have been given a reason for thankfulness that is inescapable.