In All Things

When I saw this graphic on Facebook, I took a copy and made it wallpaper on my locked iPhone. I wanted it to remind me before I opened the phone that there was a top priority, according to this scripture:

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; (Ephesians 5:19-20 KJV)

That was the weekend. Then Tuesday we learned that a dear young lady, in the process of adopting her autistic grandson, lost her husband in a motorcycle accident. My husband’s regular plasmapheresis could not be done due to clotting in his graft and a thrombectomy was required. My daughter’s doctor visit confirmed another sinus infection and asthma aggravation – becoming a chronic problem. And, I was sick.

Eventually I picked up the phone to use it and saw the graphic. “Thank you.” God be praised, I could.

I thanked Him for answered prayer for the young lady – she met her husband following specific prayers. She and I asked that she find a husband she “could look up to.” That was a spiritual request because she had grown spiritually and wanted to continue that growth with someone who understood. God, so good to us, not only fulfilled that request but provided a well-over-six-foot gentleman, taller than she was. Their life together was blessed and they were blessings to others. She will grieve, as will we who love her, but she thanked God for the time they had and the memories that will live in her.

I thanked Him, too, for the nurses who looked after my husband and recognized the blockage before attempting the process. I also thanked Him for the doctor who for all his lack of bedside manners is very good at what he does. The correcting operation is being done as I type. I pray for that doctor, too.

I thank God for my daughter receiving helpful medication to alleviate her symptoms and provide physical comfort as I pray for her spiritual comfort, too.

There is so much more. So many things to be thankful for in a world that presents pain as we move through it. Our Lord experienced what we do, all the while knowing what could be and what was to come. I think of how He desired to comfort:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37 KJV)

Because of His living as we do, we can endure, as He did, for the joy that was set before Him and for us:

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 KJV)

Yes, each day I will give thanks to God for all things.