Are you thankful? How do you show it? I am asking something more than are you in a good mood? The Hebrew word for thankful refers to the hand and what we stretch out to the Lord. Being thankful is us acting as a tenon in a mortise and tenon woodworking joint. The mortise and tenon woodworking joint has been used around the world for thousands of years—for good reason. It’s considered one of the strongest woodworking joints for attaching two pieces of wood at 90 degrees.
The mortise and tenon joint functions by inserting one end of a piece of wood into a hole in another piece of wood. It’s that simple. The smaller end of the wood is the “tenon,” and the wood with the hole in it is referred to as the “mortise.” Thus, being thankful is emphasizing God’s strength and not our own. Being thankful is “casting all our care upon the Lord because He cares for us.” (I Peter 5: 7)
I understand that sometimes we don’t feel like being thankful. We definitely feel like the ‘smaller’ piece in things and we are prone to get spiritually depressed and depreciate what the Lord can do in us. We’re the problem and we know it. Yet, it is this particular situation that God recognizes and knows about us and His work in us. God explained it to the Apostle Paul this way, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Do you see it, yet? Being thankful means we acknowledge we are on the receiving end of grace or better yet, grace will receive us even when we feel small and out of joint.
(I apologize for going so long without posting to my blog. Me, being thankful going forward is stretching forth my hand to type something useful and helpful for the growth of our faith in Jesus and something that reminds us of the big picture of God’s grace under which we live. Happy Thanksgiving! Norman)