Thanksgiving

"O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both large and small. See the ships sailing along, and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea. They all depend on you to give them food as they need it. When you supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them, and they are richly satisfied. But if you turn away from them, they panic. When you take away their breath, they die and turn again to dust. When you give them your breath, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the LORD continue forever! The LORD takes pleasure in all he has made! The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains smoke at his touch. I will sing to the LORD as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath! May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD. ..." Psalm 104:24-34 (NLT)

So...

 Give thanks to the Lord for clean water that runs freely for some have it only scant and polluted ... and some have none.

Give thanks to the Lord for shelter for some shiver wet and cold in the fearful darkness ... and some die for lack of it.

Give thanks to the Lord for those who are close to you, those who care for your soul in sincerity, for some there are none ... they suffer in deep loneliness.

Give thanks to the Lord for the food you have access to, for God's graceful provision - for whatever little you may have, for some suffer great pangs of hunger and others die for want of your scraps.

Give thanks to the Lord for warmth if you have it and shade if you have need of it, for it's not without God's graceful provision that any have what they need.

Life, even in it's most meager station ... is a gift we did not earn to deserve, but a gift of God - even in it's most humblest existence. He who gives life is surely deserving of thanks for His grace in everything that He's provided - from the simplest of things that we take for granted ... to the wealth of His provision that we give no thought to.

We are a most ungrateful nation ... a people continually seeking more when others give their lives in search of what we already have and disregard. Who provides even the simplest of things that sustain us to the riches of our comfort? And to whom do we owe thanks for those things from the simplest to the most complex marvels? Man creates and makes use of things already provided without thanks for the elements of their origin ... when there is only One who creates and gives life from nothing. He is the origin and the sole provider to man - not man himself who tends to give himself undeserved credit.

To God be the thanks for His provision of the earth and everything on it, for the heavens that give us light, warmth and beauty - all for our benefit, ... and for the provision of redemption to Himself at great personal pain and cost.

We are a species undeserving, yet one for whom all things that were made have been provided ... 

... Let our thanks be thoughtful and our gratitude sincere on a day set aside for particular observance of His grace and may they be as vast as the provision we have received by His kindness.

"No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8 (NLT)