We teach our children they should learn the magic words, “please” and “thank you.” We know their first efforts are not from the heart. They must get older before they really see that they are not the center of the universe, that their bounty is not earned. It was given because they are loved. The more that sinks in, the more sincere the gratitude. As it sinks in even more, they begin to realize that these words of gratitude are not enough, that one expresses thanksgiving in action. Nothing pleases a parent more than seeing the child share with others out of a recognition of blessings received.
We grow in much the same way as God’s children. We begin by saying “thank you” to him in worship and prayers of thanksgiving. We learn to offer him the “fruit of our lips” in gratitude. He delights in this sacrifice of praise. The more we understand, the more deeply the gratitude is felt. If we keep growing, we begin imitating him by blessing others with our blessings. This may be the highest form of gratitude. Nothing delights our Father more.
Martin Luther, in his “Lectures on Galatians,” once wrote:
If there is anything in us, it is not our own; it is a gift of God. But if it is a gift of God, then it is entirely a debt one owes to love, that is, to the law of Christ. And if it is a debt owed to love, then I must serve others with it, not myself. Thus my learning is not my own; it belongs to the unlearned and is the debt I owe them. My chastity is not my own; it belongs to those who commit sins of the flesh, and I am obligated to serve them through it by offering it to God for them, by sustaining and excusing them, and thus with my respectability, veiling their shame before God and man . . . . Thus my wisdom belongs to the foolish, my power to the oppressed. Thus my wealth belongs to the poor, my righteousness to the sinners . . . . It is with all these qualities that we must stand before God and intervene on behalf of those who do not have them, as though clothed with someone else’s garment . . . . But even before men we must, with the same love, render them service against their detractors and those who are violent toward them; for this is what Christ did for us. Jesus taught us to give our neighbor our coat, even our cloak also. Nothing expresses our gratitude to God like sharing our gifts with others.