If I'm walking through a parking lot and someone in a car slows down to let me pass, I do this thing where I half-jog, wave at them, and mouth "thank you." In fact, I mouth "thank you" a lot. Like, if I'm driving, trying to merge into traffic and someone gives me space, I'll wave and mouth "thank you." I'm grateful when someone does something kind for me; something that benefits me. Aren't you?
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The formula is simple:
Me + Someone's kindness = A benefit to me ∴ Gratefulness

So, for me to be grateful, three things have to exist...
• me
• the other person
• the other person's kindness

And I'm grateful for so many things. My faith, my kids, my wife, my church, my careers, my extended family, my friends, my talents... my past. I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, and I'm grateful for all of them. If I could, I'd wave and mouth "thank you" to the giver of these things. But who should get that credit?

I have plenty of non-believing friends who'll tell you that this is just life. It's arbitrary. There's no design. Good and bad – things just happen to us. Some things make me happy. Some things make me sad. There's no order. There's no sense.

Of course, in that world, my actions would have no consequence. Good or bad – it's just life. In that world, the person in the parking lot wouldn't have to let me cross. In fact, if they accelerated and ran me down, eh, it's just life. That would just be one of the things that make me sad (and critically injured).

But, I'd argue, that there's something written on our hearts. A sense of morality. A sense of right and wrong. A sense of good or bad. We're programmed to know what is good and what is bad. Now, what we DO with that sense - or programming - is up to us. We can just as easily disregard our inclination to do what is good or do what is right, as we can to be good. But the programming exists. Where does it come from?

I believe that the programmer, née, the clockmaker is God. It's God from whom we get the sense of right and wrong, of good and bad. Innately. Not by how we were brought up (conditioned). But how we are created. I sense the difference. So do you. We know what feels right and what feels wrong. Sure, it's nuanced. Sure, it can malfunction. But it's part of our clockwork. And we are ALSO inclined to feel gratitude to someone who facilitates or makes something good happen on our behalf.

That's Thanksgiving!

And I contend that Thanksgiving – as a feeling or inclination – is another proof as to the existence of God, our creator, benefactor, and clockmaker.

When I examine my faith, my wife, my children, my church, my careers, my extended family, my friends, my talents, and my past, I'm grateful. If I truly examine the source of the goodness in my life, none of it is something I cultivated or built. None of it was by chance or happenstance. Every good thing is a blessing; a gift.

James 1:17 (ICB)
Every good action and every perfect gift is from God. These good gifts come down from the Creator of the sun, moon, and stars. God does not change like their shifting shadows.

My sense of thanksgiving proves to me I have many things to be thankful for and some ONE to be thankful TO. God. Three things need to exist: me, God, and his blessings.

So tomorrow, I'm gonna look in my rear view mirror, wave, and mouth "thank you" to the ONE who benefits me daily. I hope you can, too!

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Praying for God's grace and peace in your life,

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