The Source of Gratitude

Luke, the gospel historian and Gentile physician, records a heartening account of ten skin-diseased men calling out for healing, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”¹ Jesus ordered them to go and show themselves to the priests in keeping with the Law of Moses, and on their way, all ten were made well. Yet only one of them “turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.”² Jesus blessed the man, a Samaritan, yet voiced the obvious: “Where are the other nine?”³ It is an unsettling question, for we find ourselves asking, “How would I have responded?” Would we have returned in true thankfulness with the one, or gone along in mere happiness with the nine? Personally, I can envision either.

God knows the frailty of human character. His Law came with a warning, “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.”⁴ Note the relational regression from satisfaction to pride to forgetfulness. This is exactly the path God’s people chose over time, as He voiced through Hosea centuries later: “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”⁵ Exactly as God had foretold.

Yet Paul exhorts us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,”⁶ Then if thankfulness is so often so elusive, how do we live in it? Paul writes, “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”⁷ Then this from the next chapter: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”⁸ So perhaps thankfulness begins with that for which we are both most grateful and least able to boast: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”⁹ Thanks be to God, the source and object of our gratitude.

“Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” Hebrews 12:28 NIV

Father, You are so good in who You are and who You have made us to be — Your own. May our redeemed lives echo our thanks and praise now and throughout eternity. In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ Luke 17:13 NIV
² Luke 17:15-16 NIV
³ Luke 17:17 NIV
⁴ Deuteronomy 8:11-14 NIV
⁵ Hosea 13:6 NIV
⁶ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV
⁷ Colossians 2:6-7 NIV
⁸ Colossians 3:16 NIV
⁹ Colossians 1:25 NIV