I am currently at a friend's house, enjoying good food, good fellowship, and good furniture. This year has brought untold new blessings into my life as well as abundant reiterations of God's continual beneficence. Since embracing a sacramental, more Christocentric practice my relationship with God and my recognizing His daily doses of grace has increased ten-fold. My closest friend accepted Christ; I've developed an extremely close friendship with someone with whom there used to be antagonism. I've been able to shift my focus at PHC away from studying American government to law, philosophy, and political theory. God is so good. One of the things for which I've been most grateful this past year has been the Book of Common Prayer which states:
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and lovingkindness to us, and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
Gratitude, it would seem, is the most proper of all creaturely responses to the Creator whose love pervades and sustains the universe. The gift of existence, an unqualified good, is the first instance of that love; the gift of Chist is the greatest instance. God did not create us out of necessity, nor did He create us to increase His glory. He created us out of LOVE. Our response can only be gratitude and the reflection of His love back to him.
Below is a link to a lecture on gratitude given by my favorite professor at Patrick Henry College.
Grateful Creatures, Ungrateful Gods
