Gratitude…you are my kind, healing companion, if I choose to invite you into my affairs, both arduous and easy.
When you rest on my lips, my heart opens wider to see the light of your goodness.
When my mouth allows your words to flow forth, my eyes also turn with compassion toward my other sojourners of life.
My posture shifts in a direction of humility toward the One who gave me breath and invited me to reside on this land for the measure of my days.
Gratitude, held honestly, swings the gate open for my feet to follow the path ahead, and ask the daily life question:
How then shall I live this day? How then?
Reflecting on Luke 17:11-17 and Psalm 89 & 8
Gracious God, I thank you for the witness of the one man who turned back to you when he discovered your living word healed him. He knelt at your feet and “couldn’t thank” you enough; he praised you with a loud voice. And, he was the outsider of the religious and political spheres of his time!
God of the Universe, I join with the people of faith who learned that only YOU hold the words to REAL LIFE. I, too, want your love, O God, to the be song I sing.
May my gratitude tell the story of how faithful YOU are; how you built the cosmos and everything in it.
As I look to the stars in awe, I join again with the Psalmist,
“I look at my micro-self and wonder, why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?”
You not only look our way, YOU look upon us with your creative LOVE. You give us your Spirit to guide our steps and you emptied yourself, through Jesus, of all glory, to walk in our messy world to be our hope, to be our life.
May the notes of gratitude within me be amplified into the song of my heart enabling me to live graciously and openly in all my encounters that no one I meet feels outside of your grace.
In Jesus’ healing name. Amen.
Gratitude Scripture to Read
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34
I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. Psalm 9:1
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15
Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he passed the bread to the people, and he did the same with the fish, until everyone had plenty to eat. John 6:11
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19