Here are three things for which I am thankful this year.

(1) All the material blessings of God.  I am thankful to God for all of His temporal blessings that we enjoy here in this present life, both big and small. One of the more significant recent blessings for us has been that my wife made it safely through her second bladder cancer surgery last week, and that she did so relatively easily with less pain and complications that she had previously in a similar surgery two years ago.  We saw many tokens of God’s grace and blessings along the way, including opportunities for both of us to say something to point people to God while we were at the hospital.  We have now received the pathology report and it is the same “good” kind of cancer that is low grade and non-invasive.  The downside is that this kind of cancer frequently reoccurs and requires regular checkups, but we can live with this through God’s grace.  Then as we look back at the previous year in general, we also see that there have also been many countless other blessings from God, including a reasonable portion of health and strength.  We can also see God’s blessings in such things as allowing our furnace repair technician to repair our furnace that had stopped working yesterday—and even in how this problem took place on a relatively warm day when our house did not get particularly cold.

At the same time, we have also learned we need to be thankful even when things may not go as we might hope.  At our ages, we regularly experience various aches and pains and physical limitations, but we also see God’s blessings even in this area of physical health.  We also know that there is much suffering and loss in the world around us.  Since writing this two days ago I have also discovered from an eye doctor appointment that I have two problems with my eyesight: one a chronic problem that can be serious but is less of a problem at the moment and a more acute problem that has more significantly affected my eyesight in one eye and will require some more painful treatments in the near future.  Yet, God calls us to rejoice in Him in all kinds of difficult circumstances.  We read in His Word: “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,  yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18, ESV).  This is why God calls us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18.)  At the same time, being thankful involves more than whether we are experiencing material blessings at the moment or not. 

(2) All the spiritual blessings of God.  One of the special blessings of God in Helen’s recent surgery was the promises God has given us in His Word to strengthen and sustain us.  But there are many other spiritual blessings we can think of.  One of these is that God has placed us in situations where we have been able to hear about God and grow in our relationships with Him.  This is why Christ is the greatest gift of God (see John 3:16) because Jesus makes it possible for us to experience a new and more abundant life through Him.  I know one of my regular prayers has been that I might grow in my own personal relationship with God, and He has been faithful in answering these prayers in showing us more and more of who He is and how He is at work as the gracious and loving sovereign God of this universe. 

(3) The bigger plans and purposes of God.  I am continuing to discover that life doesn’t revolve around me and what I might desire or even what makes me feel good or comfortable.  Rather, all of life revolves God and what He is doing in this world.  Ultimately, the most important thing in life is God and what He is doing in terms of all His plans and purposes for this world.  God is doing far more than we can ever think or imagine.  God’s Word teaches us that God’s big purpose in creating this world and everything in it, including you and me, is to create a people for Himself where He will become our God and we will be His people for all eternity.  Even though God may allow many things that we don’t understand or are not the things we would have chosen for ourselves, we can be confident that He has a bigger purpose in what He is doing in this world, and thankfully His bigger purpose includes allowing us to know Him even here in this present broken world. 

What about you?  What are you thankful for this year?