Giving thanks to my creator

Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!

-- 1 Chronicles 16: 8,9

Thanksgiving? Actually, I don't know of any turkey and dressing dinners in the Bible, but Noah built an altar after his ark voyage, Miriam led the women of Israel in a joyous dance of praise after the Red Sea crossing, and David wrote numerous songs of worship as God protected and delivered him throughout his life.

When I think of thankful people in the Bible, though, I mostly picture Lazarus' sister Mary as she took a pound of costly oil of spikenard and humbly washed Jesus' feet with her hair (John 12). She'd just watched her brother walk out of a 4-day-old grave, and she knew she had much to be thankful for. So she was lavish in her gratitude.

Probably you, like me, have much to be thankful for. I sleep in a warm bed at night, and my bills are paid for another month. Maybe I'll even get some money back on my taxes next year. I'm healthy. I love my work, and my Humane Society mutt smiles when he sees me at the back door.

I'm thankful, and that's a real understatement, to have been born in America. We live in an incredibly blessed, wealthy country. I'm thankful for the Bible, education, freedom, churches, caring neighbors and opportunities to grow and learn and succeed. I have the world's best father, sons who make me proud, two kind daughters-in-law, three precious granddaughters, my teenage buddy Kate, a washer and dryer that work, a closet of clothes, a dependable car and indoor plumbing.

Dawns and sunsets, beaches and mountains, books, chocolate, snowflakes, sun sparkles on water waves, music, swimming, hiking trails, flowers and trees, birds that like my sunflower seeds, air-conditioning in summer, a furnace in winter, and blazing logs that crackle in my fireplace. Food on my table and more at the store, country roads that curve past stubbled fields, a newspaper that prints my writing, questions that still don't have answers, and enough pain in my life to make me appreciate when the going's easy.

I'm thankful for what I don't understand and what I do understand; for scenery that overawes me; for variety, purpose, simplicity, complexity, serenity, turbulence, the minute, the monolithic, sunshine and clouds, and all creatures great and small. I'm thankful for human kindness, a caring church family, and the wealth of friendship and good relationships.

I'm blessed beyond what a newspaper has pages to print. But my greatest treasure is not my divine dance with creation, but with the Creator. I'm thankful for God whose exhale is my inhale. I'm glad he speaks the stars and spins the earth, but I'm mostly thankful that he's love.

My God is so vast that he creates galaxies -- galaxies that are thousands of light-years across -- and human beings whose bodies number about 32 trillion cells. Yet he's the God who became a single cell inside a young virgin for all mankind, and for me. He made himself dependent upon her blood received through an umbilical cord so he could be the God-man who would shed his blood for the sins of all mankind, and for me.

So Lord, like Noah, I bow at your altar. Like Miriam I dance in awe of your goodness and mercy. Like David I worship and sing praises to you. And like Mary, let me be lavish in my gratitude. Let my heartfelt tears of love and gratefulness caress your feet as I offer humble thanks for all you do and are. Throughout all eternity I love and honor you.

~ June Seabaugh is a member of Christ Church of the Heartland in Cape Girardeau.