BIBLE READING OLD TESTAMENT
Psalm 50: 23
But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me.
If you keep to my path,
I will reveal to you the salvation of God.
BIBLE READING NEW TESTAMENT
John 11: 41
So they took away the stone.
Then Jesus looked up and said,
Father, I thank you that you have heard me...
In this week's Lectionary, the reading of Luke concerns 10 lepers that Jesus healed. Only one came back to thank and praise him, a Samaritan, whom Jesus calls a foreigner.
(Luke 17:11-19)
Not that we are looking for praise and thanksgiving for a deed done, but it is really heart warming when it happens. Many of us go all of our lives with many a criticism and nary a thank you. I'm sure Eesa (Jesus) would agree with that.The Psalmist called giving thanks, a sacrifice. However, he also points out that a grateful heart is the first step on the path to salvation.
We have only one day a year to celebrate thanksgiving, but it is a good thing to express and feel it every day of our lives; even in suffering. When we wake up in the morning and just before falling asleep at night, if we whisper our thanks to a loving Abba, a multitude of our faults could be overlooked by a loving Father and we might receive the help we need in eradicating them.
In our daily life it is also a good thing to let no small thing done for us go unappreciated. It is very easy to say thank you for their call when someone telephones, or thank you when someone gives a compliment; not brush it off in pseudo modesty. Probably the most important thing is to thank those with whom we live for all the small and large things they do each day to keep up the house and yard or meal preparation, laundry, and cleaning up. Too, a smile and a thank you to those who service us in some way; mail persons, trash collectors, paper deliverers, pastors, teachers, and beauticians, etc., creates and spreads good will.
To foster a grateful heart in all things can be catching and makes for a much better world.
Abba Father,Thank you for all your many blessings. Thank you most especially for hearing us. We know that you always hear us particularly when we say the prayer your son and our brother, Eesa, taught us:
Our Father, who art in Heaven.
Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen
Respectfully submitted,
J. Sue Gagliardi
Parshah: Noach Verses: Genesis 6:9-11:32
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