December 19th, 2007
The “Mess” of Thankfulness
“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:7
Yesterday I believe we finished all of our Christmas shopping (and I still had 5 shopping days left!). Tim and I went to Binghamton for the last few things that we could not find around here. As we walked around the mall, he insisted on carrying the couple of bags that we had. Then, when I got hot and took off my coat, he also grabbed that to carry. Because I felt bad, I kept asking if I could carry something and commenting that it felt a bit like he was my servant. At one point he said, “Why don’t you stop feeling guilty and just be thankful.” What a concept! Later that day I read this verse and began meditating on it.
“…you will overflow with thankfulness.” I sat at our dining room table and thought about that verse. Your faith will be so strong that thankfulness will overflow out of you. Is that me? Is that you? As I sat there, I decided to begin a mental list. What was I thankful for? I started small. As I sipped my tea, I thanked God for tea, then for the sugar, then the mug and spoon. Obviously, it ballooned from there and I went back to the verse.
As your faith grows strong, you will overflow with thankfulness. Perhaps our level of thankfulness is an indicator of our depth of faith. Do we primarily complain or thank God for everything? This does not mean that we don’t recognize our fears, our needs, our hurts and our desires. However, it does mean that we do not dwell on them. Instead, as we put our lives and faith in God’s hands we realize that we must sometimes thank God despite circumstances.
Our goal is to have such a strong faith that thankfulness naturally “comes out”. In fact, the verse says that it “overflows”. Have you ever poured too much soda in a glass? The foam keeps rising to the top of the glass. As you watch, it rises into a dome and then spills over the sides of the glass. Not just one side, but on every side sticky foam runs down the glass onto the counter. What a mess everywhere around the glass.
Perhaps that should be our thankfulness. Our faith should be so strong, our thankfulness so apparent that it runs out of our lives and onto everyone around us. Everyone who encounters us should come away covered with the sticky sweetness of our thankfulness.
I know this is something that we probably all will continually deal with. How to be thankful – truly thankful – in all situations. How do we have so much faith in God that we can lay aside our momentary troubles and wants to thank God for everything (even the small things like tea and sugar)? Just a few verses later, Paul writes, “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” (Col. 3:17) May our thankfulness overflow this Christmas!