I can’t seem to move past the concept of giving thanks and the connection to Eucharist (communion). Here’s the full definition of Eucharist: a sacrament of thanksgiving, an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual divine grace, a thing of mysterious and sacred significance.
Of course! When we experience grace, the undeserved goodness of God’s hand, a gift of pure unconditional love, we’ve been invited into a moment of mystery. Anything that blesses us, or continues to bring us into complete wholeness (the present-tense of salvation) is a gift: a thing of mysterious and sacred significance. That “thing” is holy – no matter how it comes wrapped (whether in a bright cheerful package that makes us smile, or a black box topped with a black bow of grimness). That moment is God’s divine, personal touch on my very mundane, normal life. If I recognize it, I have to pause before the sacred, for the Divine has chosen to enter into my world.
In that recognizable moment, how can I not give thanks (eucharisteo)? How can I not respond as the one leper who returned to Jesus, and bend low, to loudly, excitedly, and vibrantly, glorify Him and give grateful applause for all he’s done? For when I do, I truly experience Communion with him.
Question: How has the Divine entered your world over the past week? Do you see him in the big, obvious blessings – but have not learned to acknowledge him in the small and the insignificant? Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights. May I highly recommend keeping a “blessings book?” The more we see our blessings, the more our hearts fill with cheer…and, as we all know, a cheerful heart is VERY GOOD medicine!
Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you ___________________!
Deuteronomy 8:18a
Deuteronomy 8:18a