So instead, I just said "thank you" to God. And in doing so I started to wonder, what if I had no one to thank? Thankfulness is always a sense of gratitude toward something - usually someone. I thought about how different, poorer actually, my life would be if I had only atmospheric conditions or the multichromatic nature of visible light or even the big bang to be thankful to. The first poverty is that none of these actually cares that I am thankful. But that is only the smallest of the penuries.
What happens if we have no one to thank? What is the damage to our soul? One of those damages occurred to me - likely because it is a familiar acquaintance (I will not call it friend) - cynicism. Cynicism is that jaded and mistaken belief that "it's all takin' and no givin'" to quote the physically ample and altered bard, Dolly Parton. The cynic lives in the prison of thanklessness. No one or nothing gives so there is nothing to be thankful for. It is a self-protective posture, protecting oneself from disappointment by looking for nothing anywhere. Self-protecteive and self-centered. Guarding ourselves from hope, from belief, from receiving, we who are cynics live looking after ourselves. We do not understand the sweet transport of self-forgetfulness.
Thankfulness gets us out of ourselves in two ways. Our attention is focused not on our selves or our preservation, but first upon the gift. And beauty, of course, is not the only gift. It is not only the things that we see as good that can be gifts. Sometimes tears may be a gift, for example. Beyond the gift, our focus is also on the Giver. In these, gift and Giver, we are joyfully other-focused. And not because we are supposed to be other-focused and it is our duty or perhaps our cross to bear. Just because we are full and not empty.
One other thing. This morning as I read Psalm 148 (appointed for this morning in the lectionary) another, more exciting thought occurred to me. What if I were not the only thing showing thankfulness?
Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the LORD!
For he commanded and they were created.
And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
(Psalm 148:1-9 ESV - emphasis mine)
Jesus once suggested that if we were to fail to praise and give thanks the rocks themselves would cry out. (Luke 19:40) The heavens declare the glory of God. (Psalm 19:1)
What I realize this morning is that in my thankfulness last evening, I was not alone. Yet another gift - and another nail in the coffin of cynicism.
What a great reminder... it also reminded me of the words of a modern psalmist:
ReplyDeleteCan't you feel it in your bones
Something isn't right here
Something that you've always known
But you don't know why
'Cause every time the sun goes down
We face another night here
Waiting for the world to spin around
Just to survive
But when you see the morning sun
Burning through a silver mist
Don't you want to thank someone?
Don't you want to thank someone for this?
Have you ever wondered why
In spite of all that's wrong here
There's still so much that goes so right
And beauty abounds?
'Cause sometimes when you walk outside
Oh, the air is full of song here
The thunder rolls and the baby sighs
And the rain comes down
The rain comes down
And when you see the spring has come
And it warms you like a mother's kiss
Don't you want to thank someone?
Don't you want to thank someone for this?
-Andrew Peterson, "Don't you want to thank someone for this?"
All Lyrics here: http://artists.letssingit.com/andrew-peterson-lyrics-dont-you-want-to-thank-someone-jx71s8m#ixzz2HfvQ7SdV
Listen to a sample here... https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/light-for-the-lost-boy/id550675056
G.K Chesterton once commented that the saddest moment for the atheist is when he is thankful but has no one to thank.
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