The Season of Gratitude

 'Tis the season to be grateful.  Or, is it the day to be grateful?  Actually, the grateful people around us are the ones who practice being grateful every day of the year.  They are the ones who do what seems impossible to so many of us.  They live by the word the Apostle Paul wrote long ago when he said, "give thanks in all circumstances..." (I Thessalonians 5:18).  The genuinely grateful among us do not do it as some forced measure, or as a thought out decision in every circumstance, but as a way of life.  For some of us it sounds too incredible to be true.   

Where such a life begins is by counting blessings.  Life is all about blessings.  Everyone of us is the recipient of a truckload of blessings every day.  Even the days we see as hard, impossible, and dark are full of blessings.  Such is exactly what the Apostle Paul was talking about in his letter to the church.  What we must do in the beginning is to start looking at the world with eyes that never blink, but are wide open to see everything happening around us.  At first we may not see putting both feet on the floor in the morning as a blessing, or being able to dress ourselves, or having some food in the pantry, or an opportunity to give kindness to another as blessings, but how else can we truly define these things so often taken for granted? 

Not even the darkest and hardest moments are without reasons for gratitude.  At a Celebration of Life a few days ago, parents who had lost an adult child gathered with family and friends for uncountable hugs, hundreds of expressions of love, and the joy and laughter of memories that were being carried forward into a new future.  Though they had suffered a great loss, they were also in that moment greatly blessed.  It is so with all of us.  We sometimes just have to step back and count these grace filled blessings.