There Is Always Something To Be Thankful For

Yes. There really is.  Those who look can find it.  In the dark days, it’s really hard to see.  It’s really hard to see past the dark that closes in and fills all the spaces and threatens to take up all the life inside and around.  So sometimes, we need a little help.  We need a friend to walk beside and to show us.  There isn't always a friend around in the dark.  Sometimes it is a friend that caused the dark. 

This doesn't change that there is always something to be thankful for.  When I started looking for things to be thankful for…when I started writing down and listing gifts, the list wasn't all that much different than it might be now, but to find those gifts was extremely difficult and to reach through the fog and mire to pull one out took all the effort I could muster.  Some days it still feels this way.  Looking for gifts also could remind me of the loss which made the endeavor a brave one indeed. 

When all life as I knew it felt like it was falling from beneath me, I learned to breathe thanks.  Perhaps it was for a bird song.  When you feel like you are losing all your dreams, a bird song seems insignificant, but it isn't.  It’s a gift.  What if the birdsong stopped?  You might say that it would be in accord with the rest of your life then.  But the bird keeps singing and this joyful melody in the midst of our pain is a gift and even though it reminds us that we can’t sing right now, we say thank you to the Giver of all good for this one birdsong.  This opens a door to the sunshine just a tiny crack and chases a way just a bit of the darkness.  So we look for another thing… anything… in the midst of our craziness to be thankful for.  We have a shower.  This is such a luxury when there are others that don’t.  The cynical and sophisticated can’t bother with thanks for a shower or a bed. But these are gifts that we don’t deserve and we can get caught up, if we choose to, in the wonder of all that we have rather than being drug down by all that we've lost.

That’s not to say that we don’t grieve; we must grieve.  We hurt and we can’t just cover it up with sunshine and pretend that there isn't pain.  This is not the way to heal.  But we can, while we heal and while we hurt, find a way to be thankful and this is good medicine.  So I cry when it hurts, weep sometimes until I wretch, and then fall exhausted and look for a gift…the shelter I have, my pillow, chair, bed, shower, coffee, color, birdsongs, and on and on.  All undeserved.  And I know that I still belong to the Sovereign King of the universe and that His Son’s sacrifice is still enough for me to know Him.  This is the most tremendous gift and of all that I might lose, this one things remains.  So I am thankful.