Humble Thanks: A Reflection on the General Thanksgiving
Thankfulness is one of many virtues we find hard to cultivate. We are “curved inward” thanks to sin, and our desires are disordered. We find it easier to complain about life and how difficult our situation is. When someone points out how others have it worse, we bristle like an animal caught in a trap. We may know in our hearts that our lot is not the worst there is, but we feel it in our bones nonetheless. The fight for thankfulness never ends, not until we end our days on this earth.
The Daily Office has a mold to press us into, and it is found at the end of both Morning and Evening Prayer. After we pray the suffrages and collects, we move to our own time of thanksgiving and intercession. I think it is safe to say that many of us skip the thanks part and focus on the interceding part. We are out of balance by nature, and this is where the Daily Office shines. As we close our prayers, we end with a long litany of thankfulness to God.
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The General Thanksgiving structures itself into four small sections. Each one guides us from general thanksgiving to a specific thankfulness for God’s redemption before leading us to ask for our Father’s continued help. We end with a petition that God would answer our prayers through our Lord’s intercession. I have found no better way to conclude my daily prayers than with this work.
Section 1: Unworthy and Thankful
Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
for all your goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all whom you have made.
Our Father in heaven is not a stingy giver. Every good thing you possess is from his hand (James 1:17). Every delight you take pleasure in comes from above. We can find every pleasure’s rays emanating from the radiant source of God’s smiling love. Every single good thing we experience, from the giggle of a toddler to the smell of freshly ground coffee, comes from God. Stopping to see this is almost overwhelming, especially considering what we are.
We are unworthy of this, and that has not stopped God. Indeed, it seems to encourage him: the more unworthy we are, the more cognisant we become of just how many gifts God bestows on us. He showers us, his faithless, sinful people, with rain every season. He creates tiny, sparkling masterpieces every winter that dissolve in just four hours. Our maker provides us with food to the point that we throw much of it in the garbage; we freeze the rest in magic boxes that somehow keep the temperature low all year round. Most of you are also reading this on a piece of glass that gives you access to nearly infinite knowledge within seconds, and it’s all powered by the rocks God put in the ground. We never even recognize these gifts, and he still showers them on us day after day.
It is wonderful, and almost overpowering, to see how far God extends his merciful hands. If we tried to thank him for everything, we would literally never stop: we would be standing still, saying “thank you” for every heartbeat, every breath we take, and every step we walk. He gives us everything we need, and does so without any begrudgement or animosity. He gives openly and cheerfully.
Section 2: Blessed and Redeemed
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
Praise thrives on specifics. We always want to have an attitude of thankfulness, but it is better to have a list of things for which to thank God. The prayer begins by giving us three categories: our creation, our preservation, and our blessings. Just think: we might never have existed. We are not necessary: we are contingent beings that God chose to create without any compulsion on his part. Our privilege is to experience the joy of reality because God chose to make us. He also keeps us moving, with every second of the cosmos hanging on his word. If God closed his mouth, we all would meet the end of our existence altogether. He gives us a blessing beyond those, however, and beyond that of even sweet treats and good clothes. He gave us his Son.
The Lord of heaven gave up his eternal Son. The Father sent his Son to become one of Us: to be born in a lowly condition and undergo the miseries of this life. He felt the pangs of birth, the stab of hunger, and the aches of the body. The sand burned his feet, and his mouth was parched for water. The wind that he formed powered the boat he slept on; the wood he seeded made the houses he lived in. He grew, lived, walked, and died as a one who is truly man, and he did it for the salvation of the cosmos.
Christ then ascended into heaven, and he gave his Church the means to take this gracious salvation and bring it to bear by the power of the Spirit: as the Word is preached and the Sacraments are administered, that redeeming love is brought into contact with us. It transforms us “from one degree of glory to another” as it makes us fit for that final reward, the “glory that is yet to be revealed in us” (Romans 8).
The General Thanksgiving roots us in giving daily thanks for the greatest blessing that we most often overlook. It is right and good to thank God for the raise we received at our job, but how much more is it proper to thank God that I am a redeemed sinner? Too often, we feel the thankfulness of one at the expense of the other. Those tactile blessings we receive crowd out the thanks we should give for the most indescribable privilege.
Section 3: Thankful and Obedient
And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
that with truly thankful hearts
we may show forth your praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up our selves to your service,
and by walking before you
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
The prayer concludes with a petition for future assistance. It asks that we see the world around us with open eyes. It’s easy to overlook the simple ways in which God shows us his love and mercy. We have already thanked him for these things, but now we ask for sight. We ask to be consciously aware of these mercies, so that they may create in us a heart motivated to love God. He must aid us, for our eyes will quickly grow dim to these familiar blessings.
This hand-to-the-plough thankfulness, we ask, motivates our life. Our hope is for holiness that encompasses our entire being: our personal life, our family, our vocation, and our church. We want a life of joy and thanks that redounds to God’s praise. We must not coast alone but bear fruit. It’s impossible for us to do this on our own; we need divine aid. We cannot muster up enough thankfulness or gratitude to keep us going from month to month. What we long for can only come from the eternal source, and he longs to give it.
We can easily try to live the Christian life on our own steam. We attempt to grit our teeth and press forward, ignoring all hardships and pains. It’s easy to forget, however, that this is not how we are supposed to obey our Lord. We must have a heart that springs full of love, and this love comes directly from the one who commands obedience. St. Augustine comes to mind, saying, “Oh Lord, command what you will, and grant what you command.” Our obedience must come from thanks, and a thankful heart must come from God’s Spirit. Our Lord gives both without hindrance.
We can have full confidence in our request, as we end in these words:
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
Photo by doidam10, courtesy of Canva. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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