ALL…
A Gift Worthy of Thanks.
What happens when those ads and those commercials stop touching our hearts? What happens when we don’t feel the hunger that the famished little boy with the Santa belly feels? What forms when we grow annoyed at the media attempts to raise money for those in Haiti, Africa, and Japan? We forget. We forget where we live, what we have, and Who is distributing it all. We forget to be thankful.
The following data from Poverty Facts and Stats, and Trak-In, will help you remember:
· Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
· Close to half of all people in developing countries suffer at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
· For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
· In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China
· Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water.
· Having access to a bathroom means a person is more fortunate than 2.5 billion people in Asia Pacific and Africa who lack sanitation facilities.
· Having electricity makes a person more fortunate than 1.6 billion people who do not have access to electricity.”
(Arun Prabhudesai-http://trak.in/tags/business/2007/12/20/indian-people-fortunate-futurescope-quiz/)
With these facts, are we pushed toward gratitude? We have all we need in the United States. Yet, so often we are stuck in attitudes of dissatisfaction. If we focus on what we are without or what we must attain, we will never know the joyful blessing that comes from being thankful for what we actually have. What is it like to be the famished child in Ethiopia? Living here in this country, to be alive at all, is a privilege and a blessing from God.
Every moment of our lives truly is a gift.
My eyelids open to light peeking in; I am awake. My hair gets stuck in the brush and I feel the tug; I can brush my own hair with my own hand, the tug hurts and I feel the pain. He made the coffee strong. I smell its bold aroma and I can taste its needed jolt. I pull supper out of the freezer, finish last minute cleaning, miss my workout and am two minutes late to work again. Children laugh at the bus stop; I can hear their joy and breathe in the nostalgia. The leaves have turned, the colors mesmerize me; I get to see and experience the seasons change. Dinner is served, the warmth of the shower relaxes, and my head hitting the pillow brings peace…
I must give thanks because I understand that:
Waking up to experience a new day is a gift because tomorrow is not promised.
Brushing my hair is a gift; some have lost theirs.
Smelling bold coffee and tasting its goodness is a gift; some can’t afford coffee or even open their mouths to taste it.
Having supper to pull out of the freezer, a home to clean, the ability to exercise and a job to arrive at are all gifts worthy of thanks; I’m sure that’s what the famished boy would tell us too. We need hearts of gratitude. What needs to change is not the amount of things we have in our possession or the successes we have accumulated, but rather the amount of thanks we store in our hearts and the perspective from which choose to look.
Being constantly thankful is not easy but it will always change our perspective.
A Blind Perspective.
“I, who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch.
I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf.
I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine….
I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle… is revealed to me.
Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song….
At times my heart cries out with longing to see these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight.
Yet, those who have eyes apparently see little.
The panorama of color and action which fills the world is taken for granted…
It is a great pity that, in the world of light, the gift of sight is used only as a mere convenience rather than as a means of — adding fullness to life.”
~Helen Keller (www.aholyexperience.com)
Make this Thanksgiving more than a holiday.
If we could see like Helen Keller or talk to the little boy with the bulging belly, we would understand that Thanksgiving is not just a holiday but a lifestyle. In a season that has us anticipating Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Black Friday Sales, can we dig a bit deeper, slow down a bit longer, and spend concentrated time looking at what we have, being truly thankful for it? Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us; making today, and all that is in it worthy of great thanks!
"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name." 1 Chronicles 29:11-13 KJV.
“It’s when all fails that His love never fails —
and this is why we are a people who can always give thanks.” Ann Voskamp
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