Gifts of Life

This morning as I was eating breakfast, I was pondering how all things - food, shelter, clothing, even the air we breathe, even the ability to breathe - are undeserved gifts from God. "I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man." (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13) "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17) His greatest gift to us was, of course, His Son - Jesus Christ, and His grace in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." (Romans 3:22-25) It occurred to me, not for the first time, how utterly ungrateful we are so much of the time for the countless gifts God has bestowed on us. Think if a friend of yours gave you a gift; it was not your birthday or a holiday or an anniversary, they just gave you a gift wanting to bless you. Think then if you just ignored that gesture and didn't even accept the gift, or you just grabbed that gift from their hands and then ran off to enjoy it without so much as a backward glance or a "thank you", or even worse, if you just took the gift from them with some comment like "About time!" as if you had in some way earned that gift and they had been previously "slacking off" by not giving it to you. "Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give." (Proverbs 25:14) The thought of acting in such a way is repulsive to you, isn't it? Perhaps you're thinking, "Oh, that's dreadful! I would never act in such a ungrateful and self-centered manner." Yet that is exactly how we so often treat God and His gifts to us. We have done nothing to earn or deserve God's favor. As the Catechism teaches us, all men are worthy only of the "wrath and curse of God". Yet God was pleased in His grace and mercy to send Jesus Christ to live a perfect life, die a sinner's death, and take upon Himself the wrath and condemnation that we justly deserve so that we might inherit His reward. As if that was not enough to put us constantly on our knees in worship, and awe, and gratitude, God also daily blesses us with so many gifts: food, houses, family, friends, clothes, churches, schools, and the list goes on and on. "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) Yet how often do we truly recognize God's goodness to us? How often are we truly grateful for each and every gift He bestows upon we who are so unworthy? Something to ponder as we go about the day. Our God is truly marvelous with His abundance of grace, goodness, and love!

"Now thank we all our God,

With heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom his world rejoices;

Who from our mother's arms

Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours to-day.

O may this bounteous God

Through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts

And blessed peace to cheer us;

And keep us in his grace,

And guide us when perplexed,

And free us from all ills

In this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God

The Father now be given,

The son, and him who reigns,

With them in highest heaven,

The one eternal God,

Whom earth and heaven adore;

For thus it was, is now,

And shall be evermore."*

*"Now Thank We All Our God" from the red Trinity Hymnal*