Quotography & LTTL: Thankful

What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday.
~Unknown

What a sobering quote this is, don’t you think? So many of us tend to think of God as nothing more than a cosmic vending machine, dispensing blessings when requested. A Divine Sugar Daddy to keep us happy when we drop strong hints about our latest wants and desires. How often do offer up prayers of thankfulness for what we already have? It’s so easy to go about the days, weeks, months and years not giving it much thought about what life would be like without the people we love and creature comforts we enjoy. It’s like they’re always suppose to be there.

But what if they weren’t?

This is Thanksgiving week in the United States….you know, that little bump in the road on the way to Christmas? Yes, we all learned the “first” Thanksgiving was an event where Colonial Americans and Native Americans shared in a bounty of food and friendship. Elevated to mythical status, the actual reason behind this event can be read HERE. I was most struck by the idea that the Pilgrims’ and Native Americans’ thankfulness was born out of misery and hardship….not out of abundance and plenty.

Thankfulness really knows no season or country. It also doesn’t need to be dependent on social or economic status. Are you a one-percenter? Middle-class? Homeless? Is your life a bed of roses or a daily struggle? Are you a high-powered CEO or desperately looking for a job?

When I put my pity party on pause and really think about this quote, I’m sad to admit I don’t give thanks nearly enough as I should. Because if I woke up tomorrow and didn’t have my husband, children, grandchildren or extended family anymore, the quality of my life would suffer. God has blessed me with relatively good health despite my bad habits. Entrepreneur’s scans for kidney cancer have come back unchanged so far, a blessing of indescribable worth. We are an integral part of our grandchildren’s lives, which I remind myself that many grandparents don’t have the opportunity to develop such a close bond.

Yes, I’m thankful for my creature comforts, but they need to be relegated secondary in priority. I’m thankful I live in a country that, for all practical purposes, values freedom and allows its citizens rights and privileges not offered in many other parts of the world. We do have many faults and shortcomings, but there isn’t another country in which I’d rather live.

And, as a Christian and child of the Living God, I’m most thankful for a loving Savior. I’m thankful God the Son manifested himself in the form of a man, freely sacrificing his life to reconcile me back to my Creator. That’s a blessing I am thankful for every day…even if I don’t say it enough.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. ~Psalm 103:11-13

Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him…And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ~Hebrews 9:28, 10:10

Happy Thanksgiving to all….regardless of country or creed.

Quotography and Life Through the Lens