Yes, I’m very thankful for my health and that of my family.

I’m deeply grateful for this country, which provides untold material blessings, security and limitless opportunities. There is none like it anywhere in the world.

But I want to draw back and take a big picture view of something I am sooooo much more grateful for, because it directly affects my eternal destiny, not just my brief earthly pilgrimage.

I speak of something that I often take for granted: My faith in God as revealed in the Bible. 

I came to faith in my mid-30s, and at the time I wasn’t looking for God. I was lost and didn’t know it.

I had no idea who I was, what I was, or where I was spiritually. Not a clue.

I was completely caught up in the world, yet It was God who came to me and, like Adam in the Garden of Eden, I was running, hiding, covering up and denying.

Then those tender, compassionate words came to me from a Voice that I could no longer ignore, “(Adam) Where are you?” 

Now, full disclosure, I have no idea why He chose to reveal Himself to me, the most unpromising candidate in the world.

I was an Olympic-level sinner, on my way to Hell with a high hand. But miraculously, mysteriously, something came alive in me that wasn’t there before: faith.

You see, faith is a gift of God (see Ephesians 2:8-9) and, as promised in Colossians 1:26-27, that faith gives us the exclusive means to see into, “the mystery which had been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Me? A Saint? Yup! Oh, not in myself, “God willed to make known” Himself to me and in so doing, He was calling me into sainthood, although my qualifications were exactly zero.

He has been doing the same for billions of surprised, unworthy recipients of His lavish grace for thousands of years.

It’s in His nature, as explained in Psalm 103:8-14:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
He will not always contend with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our guilty deeds.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.
Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our form;
He is mindful that we are nothing but dust.”

My Prayer of Thanksgiving to God

Oh God, I am so thankful that you are good, VERY good. You are the opposite of those dreadful pagan “gods” of Mesopotamia.

Nor are you anything like the Pharisees, judgmental, accusing, hypocritical and vindictive. 

You could have made it impossible to get near you, remaining at a distance to prevent “soiling your hands” with the likes of us. You could have hidden yourself forever behind the “smells and bells” of religion.

But instead, you sent your precious Son to rescue us, personally.

In the Garden, despite clear warnings, our ancestors Adam and Eve tossed your loving overtures back in your face and sided with your archenemy.

We listened sympathetically as the Devil impugned your character, your Word and your good intentions.

Then, without so much as a “by your leave,” we followed in lockstep with the serpent in his flaming rebellion and did exactly the opposite of what you patiently instructed us to do.

Yet even though You held all the cards (omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, etc.), You didn’t just squash those two miscreants (and by extension, all of us) like bugs and start over, you had bigger plans — plans that would put your mercy and grace on full display.

Thank you, merciful Father …

Stupendous Act of Grace

And then God, you performed the most stupendous act of grace the universe has ever witnessed.

After messing up big time, we covered ourselves up with shabby DIY homemade threads and hid from you in the bushes as though You were the one to be avoided.

We even blamed others, including you, for our abject failure, “The woman whom You (God) gave to be with me …” ; “The serpent deceived me, and I ate …”

But you came looking for us to provide life-saving spiritual coverings, as recorded in Genesis 3:21: “And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

This bloody substitutionary sacrifice of innocent animals foreshadowed the eventual offering up of the innocent Son of God as our final Substitute to stand in the gap between sinful men and the righteous wrath of a Holy God. Wow!

Thank you, precious Savior …