For what do you give thanks this year? It has certainly been a year full of challenges, and so it is easier to list all of our concerns. It is right to recognize these challenges, as a way of identifying the concerns that unsettle us. I will not list all of the things that we could be concerned with here; they have been named well enough in enough other places. The problems with this world can be found easily enough. Too easily, though, we list the things that disturb us and leave it there. Our focus can become consumed with the problems and brokenness around us. The power of listing things to be thankful for comes in helping us to recognize that broken as the world is, it is still good. The world is God’s good creation, full of wonder and signs of healing in the midst of all that brokenness.
When we focus on looking for problems and signs of brokenness, we will find plenty of examples. Yet dwelling on them can lead to despair, as all begins to seem hopeless and it can feel like it is impossible that things will ever get better. Yet the message of the gospel is that God heals brokenness. When we listen to that message, we can begin to see that healing happening around us. We can begin to see God at work all around us. This is a source of hope for us. We are enabled see the world as full of possibilities for God’s healing, and ourselves as empowered to be part of that healing.
For what do you give thanks this year? May I suggest that for your list, focus on connections that have been re-established; times that people have worked together for the common good; people that have reached out to others in their need. These are signs of God’s healing at work in the world. This kind of thankfulness calls us to see Christ in our world and to be little Christs to one another. It is a thankfulness that goes beyond self-interest and instead calls us to participate in God’s work in this world.