October 9, 2016

A newly arrived soul in Heaven was met by St. Peter. The saint toured the soul around Heaven. Both of them walked side by side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

St. Peter stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all the petitions to God said in prayer are received." The soul looked at the section, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets from all the people of the world.

They walked again until they reached the 2nd section, and St. Peter told the soul, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are packed and delivered to the persons who asked for them down on earth."

The soul saw how busy it was. There were so many angels working in that room, since so many blessing were being packed and delivered to Earth.

Finally, at the farthest corner of the room, the soul stopped at the last section. To the surprise of the soul, only one angel stayed there idly, doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledging Section," St. Peter told the soul. "How is it that, there is no work here?" "That's the sad thing," St. Peter answered. "After the people received the blessings they asked for, very few send their acknowledgments." "How does one acknowledge God's blessing?" "Simple," St. Peter answered. "Just say, "'Thank you, Lord'."

Our scripture reading contains a wonderful lesson in acknowledging our blessings and being thankful for them. The story takes place in a no man’s land between Galilee and Samaria and involves a group of ten men, a mix of Jews and Samaritans. Having these men in a group together, in itself, is odd, in that Jews typically would not have had anything to do with Samaritans. But, as in many cases, people who would generally not cooperate or get along, do so because of a common plight. The men have been living in isolation because of their leprosy. Wherever they are, they are required to yell out warnings to people to stay away, thereby announcing their horrible situation. Not only did these men suffer from skin lesions that would not heal for several weeks or months and are less sensitive to heat, pain, or touch than unaffected skin and nerve damage leading to numbness or lack of sensation in the extremities and weakening of the muscles, which gets worse over time, they had to go through it alone, without loved ones or friends: just day after lonely day of degradation and suffering. Until one day they see Jesus and call out to Him for mercy. Without question, Jesus tells them to go and have the priests see that they are well. Also without question, the ten men turn, showing absolute faith that they will be declared “clean” by the priests. Off they all go, but one, who is stricken by the fact that he actually has been healed. He notices the miraculous change and returns to praise God and thank Jesus. Jesus, understandably wonders why only one man came back to thank Him. Why did that happen? Ten men had their lives given back to them by Jesus and only one said thank you?

Could this group of nine and one represent us now? Does only one out of every nine of us recognize and acknowledge with thanks all of the blessings bestowed upon us by the Lord every day?

If you look on the internet, you will find lists of the various benefits of saying, “thank you.” Janice Kaplan, of Good Housekeeping Magazine reports:

“In a new national survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted for the John Templeton Foundation, 64% of women said that they express gratitude because it makes them feel good. And it's a smart move. Academics studying the subject have found that feeling grateful and expressing it decreases stress, increases happiness, and generally makes people feel better about life.

In fact, the Templeton Foundation—which supports research on questions relating to human purpose—is investing almost $6 million to fund new research on the practice of gratitude, including its effects on health and child development.

Gratitude, it turns out, functions as "a psychological immune system that bulletproofs you in times of crisis," says Robert Emmons, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and author of the forthcoming Gratitude Works! A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity. It's hard to feel fortunate when you lose your job or home or you face a difficult illness, but an ability to refocus can get you through. "Our mind often latches on to what is wrong. There's no need to ignore the negative or say life is perfect," Emmons adds. "But once you have the skill of coping gratefully, you can find a new, redemptive frame of reference."

“The skill of coping gratefully.”    Perhaps, it would be beneficial to recognize, first, to whom we are grateful. Do we just walk around feeling lucky? Do we thank our lucky stars, the direction of the wind, our favorite sweater?  No. Thankfulness implies that there is one to be thanked. As Christians, we are thankful to God and say those thanks to Him through Jesus Christ. To do anything less    is being one of the nine.       It’s pretty easy to go through our days concentrating on what could go wrong,    what DID go wrong or wasn’t good enough:    focusing on the negative.

It wasn’t until 2 months before my husband died that I realized all that my kids and I were about to lose. For 22 years, I had been pretty happy but had also done a fair amount of complaining, dwelling on the challenges we faced, the rattlesnakes, home improvements or lack thereof, Lloyd’s traveling for work, money, minor disagreements on some priorities. As he faded before me, the seemingly endless list of blessings from God that I had enjoyed every day and was now about to lose became excruciatingly clear, as did the number of things I had taken for granted.

But God is good, always. As a result of this realization, God has blessed me with the desire to recognize miracles every day: another day, another minute to work for the Lord, the breeze through the trees, the smiles on not only my children’s faces but the children I work with, having to break up a fight between kids because they’re just being normal, healthy kids, God bless them, my Dad and siblings, the happy times and the challenges.

Every part of every day is a miracle from God.  

The article I quoted tells us, “Gratitude functions as a psychological immune system that bullet proofs us in times of crisis.” It’s all very scientific.  I would say, instead, that recognizing every thing that God gives us every day should be seen as a blessing and for those constant blessings we need to respond with constant praise and thanks in our hearts and on our lips. If we are in constant communication with God or contemplation of how God is blessing us, how can we feel alone, lost or defeated? God will be with us and we with Him.

Psalm 100:1-5 ESV:  Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

God gives us the miracles that make up every day of our lives. We should each be the one who turned back to just say “, Thank you, Lord.”

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for another wonderful day to enjoy our Earth, our families, food, drink, sadness, joy, love, sun on our faces and the sound of rain on the roof, all of the gifts you give. Help us to always see these blessings and thank you for them, Lord. Amen.

A newly arrived soul in Heaven was met by St. Peter. The saint toured the soul around Heaven. Both of them walked side by side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

St. Peter stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all the petitions to God said in prayer are received." The soul looked at the section, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets from all the people of the world.

They walked again until they reached the 2nd section, and St. Peter told the soul, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are packed and delivered to the persons who asked for them down on earth."

The soul saw how busy it was. There were so many angels working in that room, since so many blessing were being packed and delivered to Earth.

Finally, at the farthest corner of the room, the soul stopped at the last section. To the surprise of the soul, only one angel stayed there idly, doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledging Section," St. Peter told the soul. "How is it that, there is no work here?" "That's the sad thing," St. Peter answered. "After the people received the blessings they asked for, very few send their acknowledgments." "How does one acknowledge God's blessing?" "Simple," St. Peter answered. "Just say, "'Thank you, Lord'."

Our scripture reading contains a wonderful lesson in acknowledging our blessings and being thankful for them. The story takes place in a no man’s land between Galilee and Samaria and involves a group of ten men, a mix of Jews and Samaritans. Having these men in a group together, in itself, is odd, in that Jews typically would not have had anything to do with Samaritans. But, as in many cases, people who would generally not cooperate or get along, do so because of a common plight. The men have been living in isolation because of their leprosy. Wherever they are, they are required to yell out warnings to people to stay away, thereby announcing their horrible situation. Not only did these men suffer from skin lesions that would not heal for several weeks or months and are less sensitive to heat, pain, or touch than unaffected skin and nerve damage leading to numbness or lack of sensation in the extremities and weakening of the muscles, which gets worse over time, they had to go through it alone, without loved ones or friends: just day after lonely day of degradation and suffering. Until one day they see Jesus and call out to Him for mercy. Without question, Jesus tells them to go and have the priests see that they are well. Also without question, the ten men turn, showing absolute faith that they will be declared “clean” by the priests. Off they all go, but one, who is stricken by the fact that he actually has been healed. He notices the miraculous change and returns to praise God and thank Jesus. Jesus, understandably wonders why only one man came back to thank Him. Why did that happen? Ten men had their lives given back to them by Jesus and only one said thank you?

Could this group of nine and one represent us now? Does only one out of every nine of us recognize and acknowledge with thanks all of the blessings bestowed upon us by the Lord every day?

If you look on the internet, you will find lists of the various benefits of saying, “thank you.” Janice Kaplan, of Good Housekeeping Magazine reports:

“In a new national survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted for the John Templeton Foundation, 64% of women said that they express gratitude because it makes them feel good. And it's a smart move. Academics studying the subject have found that feeling grateful and expressing it decreases stress, increases happiness, and generally makes people feel better about life.

In fact, the Templeton Foundation—which supports research on questions relating to human purpose—is investing almost $6 million to fund new research on the practice of gratitude, including its effects on health and child development.

Gratitude, it turns out, functions as "a psychological immune system that bulletproofs you in times of crisis," says Robert Emmons, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and author of the forthcoming Gratitude Works! A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity. It's hard to feel fortunate when you lose your job or home or you face a difficult illness, but an ability to refocus can get you through. "Our mind often latches on to what is wrong. There's no need to ignore the negative or say life is perfect," Emmons adds. "But once you have the skill of coping gratefully, you can find a new, redemptive frame of reference."

“The skill of coping gratefully.”    Perhaps, it would be beneficial to recognize, first, to whom we are grateful. Do we just walk around feeling lucky? Do we thank our lucky stars, the direction of the wind, our favorite sweater?  No. Thankfulness implies that there is one to be thanked. As Christians, we are thankful to God and say those thanks to Him through Jesus Christ. To do anything less    is being one of the nine.       It’s pretty easy to go through our days concentrating on what could go wrong,    what DID go wrong or wasn’t good enough:    focusing on the negative.

It wasn’t until 2 months before my husband died that I realized all that my kids and I were about to lose. For 22 years, I had been pretty happy but had also done a fair amount of complaining, dwelling on the challenges we faced, the rattlesnakes, home improvements or lack thereof, Lloyd’s traveling for work, money, minor disagreements on some priorities. As he faded before me, the seemingly endless list of blessings from God that I had enjoyed every day and was now about to lose became excruciatingly clear, as did the number of things I had taken for granted.

But God is good, always. As a result of this realization, God has blessed me with the desire to recognize miracles every day: another day, another minute to work for the Lord, the breeze through the trees, the smiles on not only my children’s faces but the children I work with, having to break up a fight between kids because they’re just being normal, healthy kids, God bless them, my Dad and siblings, the happy times and the challenges.

Every part of every day is a miracle from God.  

The article I quoted tells us, “Gratitude functions as a psychological immune system that bullet proofs us in times of crisis.” It’s all very scientific.  I would say, instead, that recognizing every thing that God gives us every day should be seen as a blessing and for those constant blessings we need to respond with constant praise and thanks in our hearts and on our lips. If we are in constant communication with God or contemplation of how God is blessing us, how can we feel alone, lost or defeated? God will be with us and we with Him.

Psalm 100:1-5 ESV:  Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

God gives us the miracles that make up every day of our lives. We should each be the one who turned back to just say “, Thank you, Lord.”

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for another wonderful day to enjoy our Earth, our families, food, drink, sadness, joy, love, sun on our faces and the sound of rain on the roof, all of the gifts you give. Help us to always see these blessings and thank you for them, Lord. Amen.