God loves us and gives us unlimited spiritual blessings. And one way we express our love for God is through gratitude to Him. Giving thanks, you might say, completes the circle of love between God and man. "We love him, because he first loved us," the Bible tells us (I John 4:19). When should we thank God? Right now, this very moment! Jesus showed the importance of thanksgiving not only after but before healing is apparent.

Prior to supplying food for thousands who had gathered to hear his teachings, Jesus gave thanks to God—even though he only had five loaves and two fishes (see John 6:5–13).

Before the Master raised Lazarus from the dead, he thanked God. He knew this was an opportunity to glorify Him. Standing outside the tomb, he declared: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always" (John 11:41, 42).

Christ Jesus showed us that living a life of genuine gratitude to God goes beyond merely acknowledging our creator to actually demonstrating His divine power and presence. I learned about this kind of gratitude once when I telephoned a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. Earlier I had accidentally cut a mole on my leg; it was enlarging and was hurting. The practitioner listened as I explained what was wrong. Then, calmly, she said, "Let's be grateful for this opportunity to prove God's allness."

I said I would, and I meant it. Yet as I hung up the receiver, I thought, "How can I be grateful at a time like this!" My days had been overly busy with family activities involving our young children and the caring for a senior relative. And how could I give gratitude to God before my healing had occurred?

I thought again about what my practitioner friend had said about being grateful for the opportunity to prove God's allness. The word allness really caught my attention. I realized that God, Spirit, and His perfect spiritual ideas are all there really is, and that God is totally good. So, any evidence of imperfection had no basis in truth. It was a lie about me, denying my true identity as His perfect child.

In my effort to prove God's allness and the lie to be nothing, I started to be grateful. I began thanking God, not for material things (although I was grateful that all good things are proof of His care), but for spiritual qualities and ideas such as peace, joy, wisdom, dominion, and many, many others. God gives us unlimited spiritual ideas, which supply our daily needs.

I found the more I gave thanks to God, the more I had to thank Him for. My life became full of gratitude as I went about my duties. Over the next few days I began to feel God's love and to understand His allness in a deeper, more spiritual way. And it showed through in my dealings with others. His love dissolved the fear about the trouble with my leg. And yes—I found myself being grateful for the opportunity to prove His allness, and thanking God even before the healing was evident. I began to understand these words of Mrs. Eddy: "Wholly apart from this mortal dream, this illusion and delusion of sense, Christian Science comes to reveal man as God's image, His idea, coexistent with Him—God giving all and man having all that God gives" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 5).

Then it dawned on me that the love I was expressing toward God through my gratitude had actually come from Him. It did not originate in me. And because His love was continuous, I didn't have to wait until after a healing to be grateful for it. I was not at all surprised when the bandage fell off my leg I noticed that the mole was gone and new smooth skin had grown over the area.

No matter how small or how big or how advanced a problem may be, you can be thankful. God, the giver of all good, is forever loving and caring for you. Right now, you can give thanks to God.