Thank you, God . . . again!

The night before last one of our daughters had a sudden allergic reaction to we-know-not-what.  Immediately we put in a call to the pediatrician, treated her with appropriate medicine, and stopped to pray as a family and ask the Lord to protect her and keep it from becoming a full-blown emergency.  And He did—again.

I wondered the next morning:  How many nights of her life has this child not had an allergic reaction and not had to go to the emergency room?   The answer:  approximately five thousand, two hundred ninety-two!  And that was just one child and one possible crisis averted.  That realization made me very thankful for the multitudinous times His hands have been upon us that we may not have even noticed. There’ve been so many moments over the years when things haven’t gone wrong or when little things could easily have become big things but didn’t by His grace alone.

As we enter Thanksgiving week, let’s be thankful not only for the obvious things that we can see and hear and taste and touch and smell, but let’s make a special effort to be thankful also for all the ways God protects and sustains us when we’re not even paying attention.   I’m including a few ways that I thought of below, but I hope you’ll take time to add some personal ones of your own to the list – whether you talk about it at the table as a family or whether you quietly reflect and offer Him gratitude and praise in your own heart.  Either way, may our eyes be opened anew to the many reasons we should be saying, “Thank you, God . . . again!” every day.

— all the nights we have slept undisturbed

— all the heartbeats and the breaths we have taken for granted

— all the bills that haven’t “broken the bank”

— all the clothes and meals and heating we haven’t had occasion to worry about

— all the mornings we have woken to find our homes still standing

— all the accidents we haven’t been in

— all the bones we haven’t broken

— all the days of peace we have known (as opposed to days of wartime)

— all the fears that haven’t come to pass

— all the hours we have had sufficient strength and health to do our work

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises
unto thy name, O most High:
To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning,
and thy faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:1-2

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