Everything in life seems to require urgency, as if all is dependent on deriving an immediate result. Such thinking limits any effort to understand the eternal reality of thanksgiving. Psalm 100 brings home the importance of not forgetting our creator and His blessings.
1 A Psalm of thanksgiving. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.
3Know that the Lord He is God: it is He who made us, and we
belong to Him; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts
with praise: be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever; [emphasis added]
Our daily lives are occupied with the urgency for the immediate which limits our understanding of the eternal reality. If we were only able to see a snapshot of several generations unfolding, then we would see God’s work in all and through all, and it indeed includes us all. For that, our understanding of thankfulness is girded with an ingrained sense of belonging to God.
So, as many nations take the time to remember to be thankful, it is my prayer that God gets the attention and glory for His continual creation and kindness to all generations. Only a sense of gratitude engenders a connection to our creator, which enhances our identification as “we are His.” It is only then that we can realize the existing relationship with mindful thanksgiving.