For an individual of faith, gratitude is the glad acknowlegment and recognition of the Lord's generosity in all things. Did you know that the word thanks and its various derivations (thankfulness, thanksgiving, thankful) appear over one hundred and fifty times in the Old and New Testaments? And that the imperative to give thanks appears thirty-three times?
Do you think the Lord was trying to tell us something with His repetition? Sometimes I wonder why the Lord tells us the same things over and over. And then I get it--He repeats Himself because we haven't obeyed the last thousand and sixty-six times. (I made up that number, but it sounds good.)
The parable of the ten lepers reminds us of the Lord's emphasis on giving thanks. Only one man thought to thank Christ for His healing powers; the other nine went on their way, healthy now in body but sick in spirit because of their lack of gratitude.
This I know for sure: whatever we do, whatever we give, will never begin to thank the Lord for His goodness.
I've often wondered if one of those lepers realized later, when the opportunity had passed, that he should have returned gratitude and thanks. If so, I am often like that leper. Perhaps I only convince myself of that, though. Perhaps the opportunity to show gratitude is never really past, it has only shifted in the appropriate way in which to do that. I can always return thanks to my Father in Heaven. I can always express more appreciation to others in word and deed. I can cease to listen to that evil voice that tells me it is too late to express thanks.
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