Gratitude by David Roper

Gratitude

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. —T.S. Eliot

David wrote, "The one who offers thanksgiving honors Me, and establishes a way by which I may show him the salvation of God!” (Psalm 50:23).

Gratitude is salvific, the means by which God leads us into salvation and lavishes on us all the good that He has in mind for us. 

Some folks don't have time to be grateful. Rarely do they stop to say "Thank you" to the One who gives them health, strength, beauty, intellect, family, friends and "all things richly to enjoy"—in consequence of which they never enter into the fullness of God. In fact, if I read Romans 1 right, an ungrateful heart can lead us away from God and into all sorts of god-awful behavior (Romans 1:21-23).

I picked up a copy of Alice in Wonderland a couple of days ago and read this: "Alice came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. Alice tried to squeeze through the little door, but she was much too large."

Gratitude is the "little door” that leads us into a fabulous place, the means by which we enter into a more complete, intimate relationship with God, the way by which we "more of His saving fullness see; more of His love for you and me."

Pride keeps us from gratitude: “We did it (whatever) all by ourselves.” You have to become very small to squeeze through that door. (Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall.)

David Roper
1/18/16

E-musings are archived at http://davidroper.blogspot.com