Thank who...

My wife and I put together an event for the homeschool group a couple of weeks ago. There was girly stuff for the girls and video games for the guys.

Afterward, while we were eating lunch, a young man approached our table. I had just met the boy and didn’t know him at all. He came as the guest of one of our regulars. His question was, “Who do I need to thank for today?” These words coming from the lips of a teenage boy stunned me. When I regained my senses, I accepted his gratitude for my part in the day’s activities.

He went his way and I went mine, but the shock of it clung to me after. The good manners he displayed were so far removed from the coarse behavior I expect from kids his age. I know how I was a teen, how my peers were. A fifteen-year-old going to the trouble to find out whom, specifically, to thank, has something of the feel a fairy tale come to life.

Thanksgiving is a national holiday established for the purpose of gratitude. I can’t convey how really great an idea this is. Thanksgiving begs two questions. What are we thankful for? Most people remember that. The other, though, is whom are we thankful to? This is what that young man surprised me with.

Tomorrow millions of Americans will sit down to a meal with family and friends and begin to express thanks. My family is Christian. Our thanks is directed toward God. We call this ‘counting our blessings’. What about those who do not share my beliefs? Isn’t there a logical gap there that needs filling?

The definitions I read for gratitude made it sound like an emotion, something you could feel without directing it to toward a person. The problem with that is, to be thankful, you must feel like something was done for you. I don’t thank a dog for good behavior and I don’t thank a car for good performance. I do thank my wife or the cashier at Wal-Mart or the traffic cop who writes a warning instead of a ticket. They have done something for me. It is personal. Thanks is personal.

Gratitude for things not done by a person must be directed some place else. A farmer, grateful for a good crop, must express that gratitude toward the one responsible. A mother, just missed by a reckless driver, must thank a providence she cannot see.

Providence’s proper title is God. Be grateful to God for those happy accidents. If not, know that gratitude is foolish since no person really helped you at all. That’s the logical conclusion of denying God’s hand.

What we all need to remember is what the young man at our homeschool group expressed. To whom do we owe our thanks? Consider the source of the good things in life. Whom do you need to thank?