Thanking God For All I See

“Thank you for the sghetti,” the little voice said. My daughter’s hands, folded in prayer sat against the edge of the kitchen table.

Those first prayers were so pure and yet so very contrived, for while they searched the entire room for fodder, they droned on and on.

Her forehead puckered and her eyes squinted. Through narrow open slits she spied the set table in front of her.

“Thank you for the plate.” She moved her head in an effort to see more while still keeping her eyes half shut.

“Thank you for the knife.”

“Thank you for the sfoon.”

“Thank you for the fork.”

While she counted her blessings and literally named them one by one, my husband’s peeking met mine over the top of her head. We grinned as the thanksgiving covered lights, pictures on the wall, and chairs.

I’ve been thinking of that stage of life recently. Little kid thanksgivings. We adults know better. We see reality. 

Ten lepers in the Bible had so much misery in common, and so little for which to be thankful. Each had different stories, some likely lost families, jobs, prestige and respectability. They became outcasts of society, set aside, without a future.

Perhaps they’d heard how Jesus fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, or that he raised a little girl to life. Maybe they knew he calmed waves and cast out demons. But when he came into their village, they were waiting.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” they shouted from a distance.

Can you imagine their hope when He turned toward where they stood grouped at a distance.

As we enter the season of Thanksgiving, I’m returning to the emphasis of the little things, the spoons and forks of life, those tiny pieces of regular living I sometimes don’t see because my eyes are squinting half shut. I forget the marvel and take so much for granted.

“So when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” Luke 17:14 (NKJV)

Undoubtedly overcome with joy they knew their lives were about to change, a return to normalcy, health, family and society awaited. They hurried to do what Jesus told them.

Jesus didn’t heal them right then and there, but in their obedience and as they ran, their putrid skin cleared. Can’t you picture ten lepers, lifting smooth limbs, looking, shouting and pointing at one another. Reveling in their own skin’s cleansing, hurrying on their way to be declared clean by the priest.

But one stopped. Surely he stooped to look at his legs, his hands, to turn palms up and over, up and over again. I imagine him looking at the road ahead to where the others ran toward freedom, then turning to look behind at the figure of Christ, where the healing originated.

Nine grew smaller in the distance ahead, but to the one who pivoted, the figure of Jesus grew closer and larger.

“…when he saw that he was healed, [he] returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.” Luke 17: 15-16 (NKJV)

It’s a great passage for November, not just because of its reminder to be thankful, but because our constant need calls us to recognize a Sovereign God in everyday praise. It begs us to enlarge Jesus in our gratitude for all we have.

Nine men, so enamored with returning to normal life and society forgot to thank Jesus. But the Samaritan, already an outcast by birth, saw God’s magnitude in Jesus and it brought him to his knees.Our constant need calls us to recognize a Sovereign God in everyday praise. Share on X

True gratitude acknowledges the Person as greater than the miracle. It is possible to get it turned around, to be distracted by temporal but neglect eternal.  Seeing God’s great works for how they benefit me is like praying with squinted and blurred vision.

Today is a great time to count blessings and name them one by one. It’s also a time to worship Jesus, for all the big things, but also those little pieces of life over which God sovereignly reigns while we wait for the answer we can’t yet see.

“And He said to him, ‘Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.’” Luke 17:19 NKJV

During this season of thanks, I want to return to that little child who thanks Jesus for everything both wide eyed and blurry. I long to search all around and recognize the magnitude of the Father in everything. I want to be that one who remembers to thank Jesus and takes time to return and sit at His feet even if everyone else forgets. 

And I want to look up into His face and name my blessings one by one.