A common prayer among those in our urban neighborhood is, “Thank you God for waking me up this morning.”  At first glance, it may seem like a simple statement, but when you hear the stories of how God has sustained people in the midst of daily struggles you realize it comes out of a deep faith and gratitude.  It is a genuine expression of gratefulness to be alive and have another day to live. In communities where people are struggling to get by, nothing is taken for granted.  Every day is welcomed as a gift of grace from a loving God.

Have you ever noticed that those with the least material privileges sometimes have the most gratitude?  And likewise, those who have it all can seem the most ungrateful.  Coming from a place of material privilege I have had to learn gratitude from my neighbors here in the city.  Privilege can make us feel entitled to what we have rather than being thankful. We are not thankful because we believe we’ve earned what we have.  We believe that what we have is a result of our own hard work and therefore exclusively ours to enjoy, rather than as a gift from God to be shared with others.  Grace, in any of the forms it comes to us, whether physical or spiritual blessings, is always an unearned gift.  Gratitude is the recognition that freely I’ve received, freely I give.

The great spiritual writer Henri Nouwen came face to face with his lack of gratitude after immersing himself among the economically poor in South America, “What I claim as a right, my friends…received as a gift; what is obvious to me was a joyful surprise to them; what I take for granted , they celebrate in thanksgiving; what for me goes by unnoticed became for them a new occasion to say thanks.

And slowly I learned.  I learned what I must have forgotten somewhere in my busy, well-planned, and very ‘useful’ life. I learned that everything that is, is freely given by the God of love.  All is grace.  Light and water, shelter and food, work and free time, children, parents, and grandparents, birth and death—it is all given to us. Why?  So that we can say gracias, thanks: thanks to God, thanks to each other, thanks to all and everyone."

As we wake up, eat, and spend time with loved ones this Thanksgiving, lets remember to say gracias to God and to all the people God has placed in our lives.  I pray you will notice God's grace all around you and that you will find ways to share those good things with others.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18.