Giving Thanks - in All Things

I overslept yesterday and was a little late to work.  For some reason I had slept a full eight hours and was so tired I had to really work to get out of the bed.  As I stumbled toward the shower, I hoped it would bring some relief from the aching in my joints, all the while harboring secret resentments for those in my house who have nothing to do but sleep. 

Having overslept I missed my morning devotional - so I read the Buechner meditation today.  It was about "Saying Grace."  Still, it was appropriate because I related it to "Giving Thanks."

In the text he describes this illustration by Norman Rockwell:

"Two teenagers sit at a table, one of them with a cigarette in his mouth.  they are all looking at the same thing, which is an old woman and a small boy who are sharing a table with the teenagers.  Their heads are bowed.

They are saying grace.  The small boy's ears stick out from his head like handles of a jug.  The old woman's eyes are closed, her hair untidy under a hat that has seen better days.  The people are watching something that you feel they may have been part of once but are part of no longer.  Through the plate-glass window and the rain, the city looks dim, monotonous, industrial.  The old woman and the boy are saying grace there, and for a moment the silence in the place is fathomless.  The watchers are watching something that they've all but forgotten and will probably forget again as soon as the moment passes.  They could be watching creatures from another planet.  The old woman and the boy in their old-fashioned clothes, praying their old-fashioned prayer, are leftovers from a day that has long since ceased to be."

Buechner then tells how this is probably the most haunting and maybe most enduring of all the Saturday Evening Post covers, because it touches something in all of us, echoing long-forgotten traditions and allegiances.  "But the likeness remains fresh and true to this day, and of course it is a likeness of us and of a world not unlike the one the Seventy-fourth Psalm describes." 

So, I was curious and had to check out the Psalm.  The only part that I could correlate to the illustration was this:

"Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.  Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.  Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!  Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!"

Once agian, I was convicted of the saving grace of God and reminded that I am not alone in this struggle, for "there is nothing new under the sun."  This has been going on for a long time.

Yesterday, on our local news there were two items that struck me as very curious.  One was about the ACLU threatening to sue our City Council because they always pray Christian prayers prior to every meeting. They said they would be willing to recind the lawsuit if the Council would adopt a type of "rotation" so that all faiths get a chance to lead in their type of prayer.  The second item was about a physics professor who claims to have solved an equation that proves the existence of God. Most atheists didn't buy it, but some other scientists did accept at least the hypothesis.

My question is this: If God does indeed exist (and those of us who don't need proof, but rely on faith), then whose God is it?  Is it the Christian God, or is it Allah, or Buddha, or could it be the god of Tom Cruise and John Travolta - L. Ron Hubbard! (now that's someone from another planet).  How would you like to sit in a City Council meeting and hear someone speaking some other language, praying for who-knows-what ?

In case you're wondering, I prefer to believe that my God - The God - is the "way, the truth and the life" simply because He loves us no matter what we do (forgiving).  The choice is ours to Life or death in trespasses and sin.  He wants us to choose Him, of course; and if we don't then there will be consequences to pay - but it's up to us (free will).  He doesn't particularly want our money, but His church does need it in order to keep its doors open.  But what He really wants is our hearts - all fleshy and meaty and warm and loving and aching and broken and contrite (love).  Once we get to that point, and we surrender to His Way, then all we have to do is share our testament with others.  The Holy Spirit will take it from there.  The amazing thing about my God is His grace: the way He gave His only Son to come and satisfy the old law for us, since we couldnt' get it through our thick skulls.  Just think! That was way back before Christ!  And if He hadn't lived and died and had people around to tell about it, I doubt very seriously if any of us would be here today.  So? What's not to love about the Christian God? 

I'm very thankful for Him.  I may not be successful in terms of fame and fortune.  Some people might see me as a quitter because I've started and stopped "being" so many things in my life.  But I see it as sampling whatever life had to offer at given moments; really getting in the trenches with other people of all walks of life to see how they think and live.  Somehow God's grace saw me through to my present occupation - church secretary.  I could snaz it up and call myself an Administrative Assistant, but in reality I'm just a secretary.  But I'm in an awesome position to learn so much about the one profession I would never have considered.  Well, I did once.  While in the Navy, I gave serious consideration to becoming a Chaplain's assistant.  It didn't work out then, but God knew I wasn't really ready for it then.