Wednesday, November 26, 2003
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Wednesday, November 26, 2003 |
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Be thankful for the little things we take for granted By JOHN HATCHER I think that traditional Thanksgiving calls for too little thinking as we think only of the big ticket items for which to be thankful. The big items include: our salvation, family, friends, living in a free (and equally divided) country, health, and whatever your big ticket item may be. The challenge of Thanksgiving, however, and for me, is to search out those little things for which we should be profoundly thankful on a daily basis but for the most part are simply taken for granted. Little things! Did you ever think how thankful tens of millions of the world’s population would be if they could go into their kitchens or bathrooms (if they had such), turn on the faucet and fill a glass full of drinking water and guzzle it down along with as many re-fills they wanted? Most of the world’s population walk some distance to get their water and then it’s not safe to drink. Did you ever think about that? No! Most of us take it for granted, never once being grateful for water safe to drink right out of the tap. Well, today you can start thinking and thanking. While we are on the subject of water, did you ever think about the matter of hot running water? At any moment, you’ve got hot water — anytime of the day or night. No one has to build a fire, fill a pot, and watch the pot until it boils. No! Right there in your home you have a fire constantly keeping water hot, ready for use. You can use it to melt the butter off the knife, wash your sheets (keeping those pesky microscopic vermin), take a comfortable shower (just remember the respiratory arrest you experienced with that last cold shower), and throw on the frosted windshield in the winter. Did you ever think about all that and let that motivate you to a fit of gratitude? Probably, not. Now, you can think about it. Did you ever think about the blessing of garbage removal? With little cost compared to the task it accomplishes, some men stop my by house every week and pick up my smelly, rotting, multi-faceted garbage. Every week! Doesn’t fail! Take a walk down the streets and roads of third world countries and you’ll start thinking about how thankful you should be about this matter of garbage removal. Rather than having a landfill, their whole land is strewn with garbage from border to border. So when you go pull your empty 100-gallon garbage can on wheels back to the house, say a little prayer of thanksgiving. You will if you think about it. Most of the world’s population that live in the sprawl as we do in Fayetteville depend upon buses, hired motor scooters, and foot to get from one place to another. Look out in your driveway and count the number of cars compared to the number of people in your household. All we have to do is keep some cheap gas (compared to gas prices around the world) in the tank, a charged battery and we are on our way. We can jump in the car and be at Lenox Mall in less than one hour while most of the people around the world would be talking about a half-day journey. Are we thankful for our transportation system right out our front door? If we start thinking, we will be thankful. Think about it the next time to fire the ignition and be thankful. And on and on it goes. You get the idea. The little things. Start thanking God for the little things and then, perhaps, we will become genuinely and heart-felt in our thanksgiving for the big things. We are running fast to be taking everything for granted. To be grateful means that what we have is a gift and we should be thankful for our gifts. Think this Thanksgiving Day! John Hatcher is pastor of Outreach
International Center, 1091 South Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, Georgia
30215. 770-719-0303.
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