I remember from a very early age singing a hymn called Count Your Blessings. Looking back the lyrics are fairly basic and simple – count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done. As ever with the hymns that are sung time and time again from childhood upwards there is something of taking it for granted.
There is also, however, something of it being embedded in the psyche so that at moments when you’re not expecting it, the words pop out and smack you upside the head in a manner that shakes the dust of complacency from it. For example when your pregnant wife who has struggled with her pregnancy over the last six months especially has come through successfully and given birth to the third child with both mother and child sustaining good health those words aren’t that simple anymore. Indeed something like that can trigger off quite a ream of things for which to be thankful as even that which was devastating at the time is now considered a blessing.
As I reflect on them the power of this song comes to the fore again. The words ‘thank you’ are insufficient offering to God for the many things He has done from Creation to Calvary to the Consummation that awaits those who believe. It’s the equivalent of getting what you always wanted for your birthday (and that includes the personal) and only being able to say ‘thanks’. Even thinking about it is enough to make you think, nah that’s not enough. You’d go to the nth degree to find out what you can do in return. That sentiment lurks within to offer anything you can do to help. The ‘thank you’ is no longer just words easily spun out, but become a pact and an enduring bond.
In the case of the relationship with God I often get choked up and flow with tears at considering all the things He has done … and I’m sure that ‘all’ doesn’t encompass the ‘all’ really is. Just reflecting on one or two of those events and episodes in my life reaffirm for me the character of God in His faithfulness, mercy and grace. I am assured likewise that I cannot repay Him for what He’s done in a like for like manner, but what I can do is offer even what He’s given me back to Him in a way reflecting His character. I can choose to say that I want to give Him my best – in my behaviour, in my thought-life, in the words that I say, in the relationships I cultivate, in my hobbies and pastimes. That focus and clarity is actually refreshing only because those thoughts and desires are rooted not in my self-drummed up will, but birthed in my Creator, birthed in the Spirit He so generously shared as promised from Pentecost onwards. To be a recipient of that great chain reaction is in itself worthy of further shouts of acclamation and adoration.
Enough to say that for all my flaws and miss-steps, the fundamental driving factor for anything good that I do is out of gratitude … my gratitude for all He has done for me and all He’s brought me through.
Thank You, Lord.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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