"...For All Things"

¹⁷ Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of ^[f]God.-    Ephesians 5: 17-21

As Thanksgiving approaches,   I find myself pondering the first part of that word: Thanks.   I suppose it was in Mrs. Cox’s  third grade class when some of the reality of Thanksgiving first became real to me when she assigned us the task to write a paper about the first Thanksgiving.   While I cannot remember all that I wrote in the paper,  I do recall that it must have been an outstanding paper for a third grader because I received a prize from our principal, Mr. Moffett. 

I came across the passage of scripture printed above as I thought about Thanksgiving recently.   There are three words in that passage that are troublesome for me.  Those words are:  “for all things.”    I, along with many others,  find it quite easy to be thankful for the food before us… or for the health that allows us to wake up or work another day.   Most of us are thankful for the friends and family that we engage with regularly or will gather with around Thanksgiving.  Those are good things and it is quite easy to be thankful for them, but Paul does not say be thankful for good things.  No, he says be thankful “for all things.”   

I think of a man named Job who lived centuries before the apostle Paul who praises God even when he hears that all his children have died and he lost his home.   I think of the apostle Paul who gave thanks for his “thorn in the flesh” as he realized with it that God’s grace was sufficient.    I think of Corrie ten Boom’s Christian classic book, “The Hiding Place”, where she writes about the fleas that infested their quarters in the concentration camp and how she and her sister, Betsy, gave thanks for them because the fleas meant that the Nazi soldiers made infrequent visits to their barracks.

“Giving thanks always for all things….”     I am not sure I am always there in my walk with Christ, but I aspire to be in that place.   How about you?   Have a blessed week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

   

Prayer:    O God,  forgive us for being  fair weather followers of yours.  Help us trust you in good times and bad times knowing that you will never leave or forsake us;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.