Mulling over, an abundance of numerous remarkable pleasures of life flood my mind for which we may consciously and willingly sound our appreciation for. The ‘simple’ pleasures however, are the ones easily and often overlooked and taken for granted. Too mundane, unimportant and ordinary or just plain and simply too regular to be mentioned perhaps, is what they’re taken to be.
Sharing with you this week I bring what someone willingly had brought forward, having been moved by expressions of pure gratitude perfectly uttered in simple candour, by those who carry a heart full of overwhelming indebtedness.
It happened all on one Sunday afternoon when this friend of mine took time off to visit the extension of his member church. This particular congregation was formed to foster and encourage many among the community there who needed spiritual guidance and sustenance. It was an insignificantly numbered assembly, in one tiny room, of eager faces; Faces that reflected struggle on every one of them. Some of greater measures some of a lesser, but unmistakeably apparent it defiantly stared .
As the worship progressed, time and opportunity approached for members of the congregation to share what they wished in their hearts to glorify God about or to offer requests to be taken up in prayer.
As each member stepped forward one could not miss the glow and radiance on each countenance. Those perceptible signs of struggle were replaced with a sparkling afterglow in every eye. An outpour of expressions of overjoyed hearts filled with thankfulness flowed, welling from the depths, for things they deemed luxuries.
“Thank you God for the extra money to be able to plug my leaking roof”;
“Thank you Father for the Kerosene I was able to buy so that the children can study at night”;
“Thank you Lord for dry firewood you provided to enable me cook a meal for the family”;
“Thank you Jesus for soap to wash clothes and have a bath”;
“Thank you for a job for my brother, father, husband;”
“Thank you for clean drinking water”;
Anyone with a trace of humanity couldn’t have sat dry-eyed in that gathering. Sincere humble gratitude of this magnitude is hardly an easy come-by today. My friend left with a moistened eye that evening, but with him, he also carried back, more importantly, an insight and perception far greater, of what being thankful essentially meant. Life does have God-given pleasures in uncountable measure to be truly appreciative of.
