A GREAT LOSS TO SOCIETY: LACK OF THANKFULNESS

                        A GREAT LOSS TO SOCIETY:   LACK OF THANKFULNESS

            Although our family did not attend church when I was growing up, we still honoured the Lord in many simple ways which are so often lost today.  At  Christmas, for example,  there was always an evening of singing carols, and the faith in these carols was taken seriously.  I can still hear my father and my Uncle Dick each taking the part of a different one of the kings in “We Three Kings of Orient Are”, their bass voices ringing out in joy.  As we celebrated either the sumptuous Christmas feast or the autumn fruit-laden Thanksgiving repast, the host of the table, either my father or Uncle Dick, with whose family we alternated these celebrations, would at the very least utter a brief prayer of gratitude to God.  I remember that Uncle Dick always remembered those people who were too poor to be able to share such a dinner.  My father would often say a Latin grace, one which meant the world to him.  Thus the family meal was covered in peace and simple joy, and one hopes the Lord smiled down on us.

            It seems today that Christmas and Thanksgiving are treated as family get-togethers – and that, I feel, is very important to God.  But wouldn’t it be fitting to return thanks, if only for a minute, to the One Who created everything from the sky, mountains and lakes which we enjoy, the rich harvest of squash, pumpkins and yes, the over-abundant zucchini (!), to the very institution of the family, which has always been the basic building block of society?  How wonderfully joyful and abundant everything is; how beautiful our great land of Canada; what abounding evidence of a gracious Father Who loves to give and delight!

            Let us all take time to raise our eyes up to Heaven and breathe three little words today:  “Thank You, Lord!”

           

Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.  (Psalm 103 KJV) 

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