My memories hold sunshine and shadow, exultant laughter and bitter tears.
But just living is such a gift, how can I not be thankful?
Every time I drive a car, or assemble ingredients to cook a meal, or carefully tamp down a plant's roots in the soil of my garden, or carefully edge a ceiling with contrasting paint, I thank you, God, that I have a mind more capable and complex than the most advanced computer.
Every time I and one of my loved ones hold each other in a long, tight, warm hug, I thank you, God, for the capacity to love, even though my heart's been broken over and over.
Every time I have the grace to say "Forgive me" or the grace to say "I forgive you," I thank You, patient God for Your ongoing strengthening Life that I live in and which lives in me.
I thank You, God, that You have given me the freedom to create my life as I choose, to become a plumber or an artist, to marry or remain single, to be clergy or lay, enlist in the Marines, or embrace pacifism. All You ask is that I examine my motives and live my life with honesty, integrity, and passionate commitment.
I thank you, God, for the fascinating universe I live in. I know that it's so incomprehensibly large, with over one hundred billion galaxies, each containing billions of stars and numberless moons and planets, and it continues to expand outward. Yet it's so intricately connected that everything is related to something else in some way! I'm so amazed that all human beings and all creatures on this planet are literally made out of Stardust!
You awe me, God. Every atom of iron in my human blood's hemoglobin was produced in a galactic explosion billions of years ago, then was condensed to form the iron in the crust of the earth from which all humans emerged. And all human beings and other living creatures share a common genetic ancestry we can trace back to the original single-celled creatures in ancient seas. I sing praise and thanks to You, infinitely inventive Creator God, in the name of my whole cosmic community!
I am an infinitesimal speck on a medium-sized planet at the edge of a galaxy. Yet I thank You, God, because You still know me personally and call me by name. What kind of miracle is that? What kind of miracle is it that at a point in this planet's history You chose to be born here, an earthling, born to set foot on this planet's ground, stride through its grasses, sweat while traveling through its deserts, grow tired, bleed, cry, love, heal, die. I thank You, God, for Your human face, Your crucified body that allow me to know You as you know me. For Your new glorified body which promises me my own glorified eternal body if I live united with You.
I thank You, God, that Your Holy, Vivifying Spirit sweeps over this planet like a cleansing wind, stirring us to enthusiastic life when we are lost in apathy and cynicism. Thank You, God, that Your Spirit raises up new prophets to speak out for freedom, inspires musicians, writers, and artists to enflesh love in notes, words, and paint, leads missionaries to new frontiers of witness and dialogue, strengthens the hands of Doctors performing surgery in Veterans' hospitals in America, and the hands of villagers digging wells for water in Africa, and the hands of mothers sewing clothing to sell to support their babies in Colombia.
How can I thank You enough, God. You always inspire me and aid me to make my crooked paths smooth, to find meaning in the darkness of depression and loss. You whisper to me when I've grown deaf to everyone elses' voices. You soften my heart when I've hardened it against feeling love again. You help me bend like a willow when I've been rigid as an unyielding oak. You help my heart to expand more and more until it can hold the universe in love and prayer.
Sometimes I forget You. Sometimes I walk away from You because I am angry and impatient. Sometimes I weep because I feel as if You have walked away from and abandoned me. Help me to trust You, to believe that I am Your child, that in the midst of this incomprehensibly huge and intricate universe, You reach out to me and love me. I thank You for this beautiful life, God. You make it beautiful. You sew up its tattered edges. You embroider it with matchless love. Help me to always love You and my beautiful life enough!