Article November 24, 2008 Issue

UNCOUNTABLE BLESSINGS

WARREN BOLON

THIS YEAR'S BIBLE LESSON on "Thanksgiving" goes to the heart of what it means to be divinely blessed. Whether you're moved to whisper thanks, or shout and sing you praise, this message on the nature of God's giving will tune your voice. But it also will spur fresh thinking about what and how God supplies His creation.

The Lesson's opening Golden Text presents a familiar line from the 23rd Psalm in the New Living Translation's wording, which completes a thought strongly implied in the King James Version: "My cup overflows with blessings" (verse 5). As I studied the Lesson's six sections, I found a breadth and depth of benefaction that made me want to rephrase poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous Q&A to "How do I bless thee? Let me count the ways." Lift Browning's already lofty human "love" to the divine "bless," and the "ways" truly become uncountable.

In all of God's means or modes of supply, the substance of His giving is clearly spiriutal, not material. As lines in the Lesson's Responsive Reading point out, God "is good" and "filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Ps. 107:1, 9). Effect mirrors the nature of its cause. Good bestows goodness—new ideas, unexpected insight, comfort, awakening, courage in trouble, a deeper understanding of Spirit and the solidity of our spiritual selfhood—rather than "the goods" we sometimes wish for.