Article November 22, 2010 Issue

Thankful living

BY JOHN OGUTA

Thanksgiving is a common holiday for Americans and Canadians, and is looked on fondly by the rest of the world, including those of us here in Kenya. When people lift up the power of gratitude in their hearts, they are affirming the presence and goodness of God in their churches, communities, and the world. This isn't just an abstract exercise.

Wonderful proofs that gratitude heals and contributes to one's general well-being are found in the pages of the Bible. The book of Psalms, for example, sings thanks to God for His blessings. And for the woman who humbly washed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, gratitude changed her life (see Luke 7:36–50). But to me, there is no more stirring example of the power of thanksgiving than that of Jesus standing outside the tomb where Lazarus had lain dead for four days.

Once the stone was taken away from the tomb, the Master looked up and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me" (John 11:41). With that, he commanded, "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43)—and Lazarus did. Had Jesus simply gone along with everyone else's view that Lazarus was dead, he might have stood at the tomb in discouragement and found little to be grateful for. Instead, he recognized that the God who is Life was incapable of creating life limited by matter. The raising of Lazarus shows the gratitude that penetrates a negative or hopeless view of conditions and sees reality: life defined by harmony and well-being.