Job 1:21 (ESV): Gratitude
And [Job] said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job is famous for a life of such “troubling” moments. Indeed, his losses were deep and many. Just moments after losing all his livestock, he learns of the simultaneous death of all his ten children. Job’s profound grief was evidenced in his response: he “tore his robe and shaved his head” (1:20). His words in that painful hour make me think Job knew the practice of gratitude, for he acknowledges that God had given him everything he’d lost (v. 21). How else could he worship in the midst of such incapacitating grief?
The practice of daily gratitude can’t erase the magnitude of pain we feel in seasons of loss. Job questioned and grappled through his grief as the rest of the book describes. But recognizing God’s goodness to us—in even the smallest of ways—can prepare us to kneel in worship before our all-powerful God in the darkest hours of our earthly lives.
O God, You are the Giver of all good things. Help me to recognize Your generosity in even the smallest ways and to trust You in seasons of loss and hardship.
I, like Kristen Holmberg above, hope to live deliberately, to be thankful, and to experience God in the minutia of my day. But the breakneck pace of life easily robs me of this beauty. How can I slow down?
At the end of her article, Kristen Holmberg recommends starting a “gratitude list” to remind us of the beautiful, sacred gift of God’s love in the small moments of our lives. I am going to take her up on this . . . as soon as I finish the shopping, wrapping, worrying, unboxing, cleaning, recycling, assembling, and donating.
I wish each and every one of you a blessed Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Stan
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