Thanksgiving: What We Are Grateful For

Several kinds of things make us thankful. We are grateful that we were not frustrated in what we wanted to accomplish—it did not rain before we could get the hay in the barn.

We are grateful that we had help doing what we could not do by ourselves—as when people helped us move the piano in from the U-Haul and take it upstairs.

We are grateful for something nice that came unexpectedly out of someone’s good will—and the thoughtful motorist who stopped and changed the tire that our own tire tools could not manage.

We are grateful for what we needed for our very survival—to the surgeon who performed our open-heart surgery.

We are grateful to the person who gave that “last measure of devotion” to save our life—as when someone drowned saving us from a flooding creek.

These reasons for gratitude set us up to appreciate the One we remember here for what he did for us long ago. It is the only thing of its kind, where a man willingly gave his life in excruciating rejection for people who did not deserve it. It is the sort of thing that can come only from a degree of love we don’t understand but need. About the only thing we can do is say thanks here for “such an unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15).