Thankful…For the Small Things
“Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His
name; Make known His deeds among the peoples” Psalm 105:1
If you are like me, you are most generally thankful for the
extra-ordinary. For instance, recently
my friend Mike King found my name on that lost money list the State puts out
periodically. I had moved last year and
a company that owed me a refund could not find my new address. I contacted them and I now have $103.00
coming my way that I didn’t even know I had missed. WOW!
I’m here to tell you, I was thankful!
Here’s another one: Many years ago
I served in a country church. My office
was this dusty room just big enough for my desk, a book case, and the church
copier. Between my desk and the wall, I
kept a marker board I would use for meetings and class lessons. I was working at my desk one day and decided
I needed to pull out that board in preparation for a meeting I was having
later. So I grabbed the board and lifted
it over my head to set next to the desk.
As I did so, a large brown recluse spider dropped onto the desk smack in
front of me. It could have easily landed
on my head, or fallen down my shirt. I
was frozen in shock for a moment until I grabbed something on the desk to kill
the potentially deadly spider with. Was
I thankful? Umm…YES! I hate spiders. This was a big thing, and I was very, very
thankful not to have been bitten.
Big things, it seems, get all the glory.
Yes, we are glad that our team wins a game early in the season, but we
are REALLY thankful when they pull a victory out in the championship, right? We may celebrate and talk about it for
days!
If you think about it, big things don’t come around very often, do
they? But our lives are absolutely full
to over flowing with small things that we can be equally as thankful for. We don’t see them as big things because they
are so common place in our lives.
Saying Thank You for the Small
Things
When was the last time you were thankful for stuff ‘working’? Oh, we’ll grumble and fuss for sure when that
light bulb…waaay up in the entryway…blinks out when we need it. But are we thankful for the thousand times
that it came on before without a hitch?
How about the thousands of times you get into your car and it actually
starts? How about your ability to stand
from a sitting position and walk across the room? Been thankful for that lately? You will be should you ever lose that ability
for any length of time.
I was thinking about all the small things we have to be thankful for this
week. I was driving into work earlier
this week and suddenly took stock in what a blessing it is to get to drive. I paused for a moment and looked around the
cockpit of my car. I felt the steering
wheel in my hands and looked at each of the gauges and controls. I…get to drive…this really cool car!!! I get to pilot this large machine around the
roads of my city, and take it out on the roads of the surrounding
territories. There may be a day in my
future when I no longer have those liberties.
Age or disability may cause that freedom to be taken away. I’m so very thankful to be able to
drive. Are you? Have you thought about it and given glory to
God? I have.
Here’s an obvious one: Have you
been thankful for the ability to breathe lately? We don’t spend much time thinking about
breathing, do we…much less being thankful for it. We don’t think about breathing at all. We just do it. Every day of our lives, we breathe. We get used to breathing. We take it for granted. Ask someone with COPD or Emphysema if they
are thankful for breath. And yet
breathing is so pleasant. It’s quite
enjoyable if you think about it.
Go ahead, give it a try. Close
your eyes and breathe in slowly a couple of times. Take stock of the smells,
the sensations… This may sound silly, but it occurred to me the other day that
when I focus on it, breathing brings the same sense of satisfaction that I get
from a cool drink of tea, or that first taste of a bowl of soup. It’s just what the body ordered…and we
mindlessly do it a thousand times a day…or maybe more! Incredible no? Are you thankful? I am.
And I’m trying to be more intentional about expressing it to our Heavenly
Father. What a gift he has given us in
even the very breaths we breathe.
Be thankful! Yes, celebrate and
give thanks for all of the BIG things we are blessed with in life. But, take stock daily of the innumerable
small blessings, freedoms, and gifts that surround each of us. These also are evidences of the love of our
great God. And in response, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 encourages us to: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all
circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Be thankful today, and every day.
(submitted by Kerry Patton)
