Praise the Lord for the wonderful season of of Thanksgiving that paves way for the Advent Season that culminates in the glorious Christmas Event and the season. People are already saying, “Where did the year go?” Already the stores are filled with Christmas decorations, children are wondering what they will find under the tree. My wife has already completed decorating two of multiple Christmas trees. I was talking to one of the nurses at Lourdes yesterday who shared with me that she going get her fresh Christmas tree this Saturday. These days Thanksgiving is basically a pre-season holiday, something you do to get in shape for Christmas. We eat, we sleep, we watch football, and we don’t stop until January.
Somebody said that it is the the art of giving thanks that separates man from the animals. To receive a gift and say, “Thank you,” is one of the noblest things a man can do. There is nothing small or trivial about it. To say “Thank you” is to acknowledge that we have been given something we did not earn and do not deserve. Happy is the man who understands that all of life is a gift of God and that life itself is the ultimate gift. This is why the Bible says, “In everything give thanks.” (I Thessalonians 5:18) When we can’t do anything else, we can always be grateful. Someone has said, “If you can’t be thankful for what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped.”
Our Loving Heavenly Father has a way of weaning us from our dependence on the things of the world. A Bible commentator wrote over a century ago about how God weans us from dependence on the world. First, he makes the things of the world bitter to us. S econd, he removes one by one the things upon which we depend. Third, he gives us something better. In the end, we find that we no longer need the things we used to think we couldn’t do without. Then our walk with God is stronger than ever before. At the end of a bloody battle during the Civil War, someone found the following prayer folded in the pocket of dead Confederate soldier: "I asked God for strength, that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity, then I might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among men, most richly blessed." It is a great advance in spiritual understanding to be able to say, “I got nothing I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.”
Several years ago I ran across a copy of a letter written by a woman named Lois Kaufman after the death of her husband and her two subsequent tumor operations. The letter was written to Jesus. (The letter was published in the Biblical Bulletin, a publication of the Biblication Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania.)
"Dear Jesus,
I’ve written a lot of “Thank Yous” lately, but this is my first one to you. Until now I didn’t appreciate your gifts to me these past several months. Thank you for taking Don home to be with you. Now I’ll never be concerned with what the future holds for him. His days are guaranteed. Thank you for giving him such a wonderful Christmas. Thank you for making his birthday last Sunday his best ever.
"Thank you for putting me in the hospital three weeks after he died and showing me the way you could use his death in my life. I wasn’t always sure how to approach others with the Gospel. But now you have given me so many openings, I can hardly handle them all.
"Thank you for my most recent surgery and for the lessons it taught me. Especially for showing me how much I needed you. Thanks for letting me see what it is like to face surgery and suffering without you as I watched the difference in the lives of my roommates.
"Thank you for the lessons Becky and Lori (her daughters) have learned from this. I could never have taught them the way you did. That’s because of the great Teacher you are. I can’t wait to see what you give them on their heavenly report cards.
"You know, Jesus, I wouldn’t have planned my life this way. In fact, I would have planned it just the opposite. I would have sought to avoid death’s knock. I would have ducked out on the surgeries and tried to pretend that Christians were kept well by you all the time. But I would have missed out on so much.
"The kids are sorry they couldn’t be with their daddy on Father’s Day, but we were glad he could be with both his earthly and Heavenly Father this year.
"Oh, I could go on with this letter, but I could never cover everything I have to thank you for. So I’ll send more, but for now please accept this as a beginning.
"Gratefully yours,
Lois"
When we read something like that, we can only conclude one of two things: either that woman has lost her mind or she has chosen to put her confidence in God alone. That’s the very choice we all face.
In Christ,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment