Thankfulness

 My granddaughter recently texted me to say: I stop and think about how important it is to enjoy our time and be grateful for what I have, so I have been really focusing on just being present and thankful each day at the moment.

I responded with the question: who are you being grateful to?

Can we express gratitude without there being a recipient of our gratitude?

I’ve been intrigued to see ads appearing occasionally in the newspaper asking, ‘What are you thankful for?’ They show a man thinking about things he might be thankful about.

I was interested to know where these ads originated, and found that they come from The Thankfulness Project. This is run from a website called Be Great.

The Thankfulness Project focuses on mental health. Its aim is to help people get past their issues with themselves and look outwards.

The question I ask when I see the Thankfulness ads is the same one I asked my granddaughter. Can we actually be thankful without having someone to thank? It feels to me a bit like we’re thanking in a void, or just inside our own heads, as if we’d received a birthday present from our parents, took it outside and said to no one in particular, Thank you! Thank You!

I’m not sure that the parents would feel their gift was being acknowledged.

Being thankful is something that God’s Word, the Bible, continually encourages us to do. But unlike the Thankfulness Project, the Bible shows us who to be grateful to, that is, the One who made us, and who gives us everything in creation to enjoy.

In more than one place, the Bible says: Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and his mercies towards us are ongoing and forever.

Stuart Townend, one of the best Christian hymn writers of today, wrote a song called, My Heart is Filled with Thankfulness. In the last stanza he writes:

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who reigns above;
Whose wisdom is my perfect peace,
Whose every thought is love.

Just as the child should thank his or her parents for their gifts, so we should thank Our Heavenly Father for His many gifts to us. This is good not just for our mental health, but our spiritual health.

Stuart Townend, from the In Christ Alone UK tour.
Courtesy Getty Images