One Returned to Thank God

   Luke 17:12-16         

     Ten men came to Jesus one day-ten men with nothing to be thankful for.  They were lepers.  Then in one glorious never-to-be-forgotten moment they had everything to be thankful for.  They had been cleansed from their leprosy.

            This hour of glorious triumph faded into regrettable moments of tragic thoughtlessness.

            Nine of the ten men walked on out of the range of revelation to be forever branded as charter members of the society of the “thankless nine.”  Beyond this segment of revelation we know not another thing.  However, knowing they never said “thank you” to anyone.  They may have considered themselves to be special objects of providence—“We must be remarkable men else this healing would never have occurred.”

            How prone we are to look upon blessings with the attitude that, being who we are, it is not strange such a favor should come to us.

            “Pride slays thanksgiving but a humble soul is a soul out of which thanks naturally grows.  A proud man is seldom a grateful man.  He never thinks he gets as much as he deserves,” says Henry Ward Beecher.

            He who cultivates a thankful spirit lives in a palace and feasts at a banquet table every day.  When the heart is thankful scanty blessings appear as underserved riches.

            Do not let the empty cup be your first teacher of the blessing you had when it was full.  Cultivate a happy response to the undeserved kindnesses that come into your life.

            Be thankful that you have a tomorrow, and that you tomorrow may merge into timeless tomorrows in the Land where they need no sun.

            Be thankful there is a remedy for the guilt of sin—a remedy that goes “deeper than the stain has gone.”

            Be thankful for the cleansing fountain, for the energy and the dynamic of the spirit to live as pleaseth Christ.  If environments of your life are not satisfactory, thank God for the wider vision, and then go out to make your vision come true.

            “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise, be thankful unto him and bless his name, for the Lord is good and his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations” (Ps. 100:4,5)

Oliver G. Wilson