In Every Thing Give Thanks

It was Thomas Fuller who said, “You may believe anything that is good of a grateful man.” We have no present way of knowing how prevalent is the family practice these days of offering gratitude to God for food and for every other blessing. But it is earnestly to be hoped that prayer is still a widely practiced part of the daily procedure in our homes, and that children grow up learning the source of their blessings⎯and aren’t left to suppose that everything comes automatically from the corner store. If we need to be reminded how completely dependent we are upon Providence, we need only contemplate what could happen if one expected harvest did not arrive in the world. Our thanks should ever be to Him who has given us life, and except for whom we should want for food and for all else what makes life livable. When we think of those who here first offered up their thanks, other pictures come to mind of those who have come to these shores more recently. One is a picture of a young girl, not long from a troubled place. She had seen oppression. She had seen starvation. She had known the gnawing emptiness of an aching hunger, and the slow weakness that comes with never having enough. And as she sat down, alone, to partake of simple fare, simple food, she bowed her head humbly. Not aware that anyone was watching, and not content silently say her simple grace, audibly, and in her own language, she poured out her heart to God for the great and good blessing of simple food⎯food which to us who have been so abundantly blessed would be commonplace, and often thoughtlessly or even critically considered, without our thinking much about where it came from or what it would be like if we didn’t have it. “Words are but empty thanks,” but they are at least a good beginning. These words Shakespeare had Henry VI say⎯and this day we say them once again: “Let never day nor night unhallowed pass but still remember what the Lord hath done.” “In every thing give thanks.”