“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to thy name, O Most High; to declare thy steadfast love in the morning, and thy faithfulness by night…. (Psalm 92)
I hope we are not willing to let Thanksgiving go so hastily, to let whatever feelings the day itself [generates] evaporate in a swirl of pre-Christmas frenzy…. The splendor of their Autumn vestments which the trees don so slowly and majestically; the silent wisps of incense rising from heaps of smoldering leaves; the Eucharistic offerings of teeming fields and fragrant orchards—these are too precious to be put so soon out of mind. And if our hearts have been touched at all by the bounty of God, then Thanksgiving is [never] over…. But the question can well be asked whether a man can be moved to adore God before he has learned to thank Him.
A man was asked what he was most thankful for. He thought a moment, then he answered, “I thank God for God!” That’s really getting to the center of things. We pause long enough to analyze the feelings of gratitude we experience, and we find that they proceed ultimately to the source of grace. We give grace for the sense of His nearness and watchfulness, His “steadfast love in the morning, and (His) faithfulness by night.” It’s amazing how the perspective of things changes when we think through to the first cause, as the theologians say. We realize that God is at work in His world; things are not just happening; His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven; and our world, shabby and shaky as it appears, can redeem itself through God’s grace and one day will.
A basic by-product of thanking…is appreciation. I don’t mean the word in the sense we commonly use it. I mean it as the opposite of depreciate. Appreciation is the process of adding to the value of a thing. A kindness that goes unacknowledged seems only half as valuable as one for which thanks are sincerely returned. So a gift for which the giver is thanked is an appreciated gift, that is, its value has been enhanced in the thanking. We add magically to the intrinsic worth of everything we see and touch when we thank God for it. Not everyone knows how to appreciate, how to add to the value of a child, a friend, a sunrise, a sunset, a work of art, a service of worship. There is a skill to it, and that skill is the special gift of a thankful heart.
And now one final offspring of thanking. The relationship suggests itself in the word thanksgiving. When we learn to [thank], and learn to appreciate, we also learn to give. It is the inevitable corollary of true and deeply felt gratitude….and [this] is what makes a thankful spirit one of the most dynamic forces in the world. This explains in part the immense power of the early Church. Paul placed much emphasis on giving. He was probably the greatest fund-raiser of all time. But he understood the deep spirit of giving and he taught the people to understand it. To the Corinthians he wrote: “…for as a piece of willing service this is not only a contribution towards the needs of God’s people; more than that, it overflows in a flood of thanksgiving to God” (II Cor. 9:12 NEB) …. It is a duty…that issues out of our own overflowing hearts, if we have kept them aware and sensitive through proper and constant thanksgiving. We are [forever] reminded that:
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to thy name, O Most High; to declare thy steadfast love in the morning, and thy faithfulness by night.”
~Father Leonidas Contos, In Season and Out of Season: Sermons by Father Leonidas Contos
