On gratitude. This is the week for focusing on it. It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “You are just about as happy as you determine yourself to be.” This is not to diminish the impact of all the problems in the world, or in individual households, but it goes to a more fundamental matter, which is the disposition that each person brings to them.
We are reminded of an energetic late night TV sermon once observed where the preacher recalled the occasion when a person sitting on the side near the front of a service was discovered by the preacher during his sermon that night moaning to herself, repeating “Help me Jesus, help me Jesus.” Touched by the woman’s petition, he stopped what he was saying and turned to focus on her. “Please,” he said,” I know you have problems. But it may help you to try expressing gratitude to our Lord, instead.” The woman paused, and then began to whisper, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you Jesus.” After a very short time of saying this, her voice became stronger and stronger, and soon she was standing with her arms in the air shouting, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus.”
This story has always impressed us. It was raw and real. How many times are folks simply so buried under their problems, as real as they may be, that the very fact of their being alive is overlooked? Being alive. This is perhaps the greatest gift we, as human beings on this planet, are afforded. Perhaps the greatest gift by far.
One does not need to contemplate humanity’s role in the universe too long to be stunned by this reality. Astrophysicists like Carl Sagan, Brian Cox and Neil DeGrasse Tyson all remind us how rare our very consciousness is in this infinitely vast universe. With the latest incredible advances in our ability to look out at this universe, as in the case of the James Webb Telescope and more, we can now see back to almost what is believed to be the “Big Bang” founding of this universe, as these new technologies are able to pick up light coming at them from such great distances that it has taken that long, even travelling at the speed of light, to get to them.
It is also now clear that there are billions and billions of suns in our own Milky Way galaxy and trillions of similar galaxies in the universe that we can now see.
In all that we can now see, in this universe’s incredible breadth and depth, there is no evidence yet of life beyond this Planet Earth, much less of intelligent life like ours. Such intelligent life undoubtedly exists, though it is possible that we may never know simply because of the vastness of the cosmos.
But if nothing else, this all speaks to the very wonder of our lives, here and now, as we speak. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
