For November 7th:

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever.”

Psalm 118:1

Say Thank You – All Day.

On August 21^st I read the following devotion entry in Daily Guideposts 2013 by Brian Doyle:

“I got to talking to a shy, quiet emergency room doctor the other night, in the corner of a seething, bubbling event, and he told me a story I cannot forget. So I tell it to you because you won’t be able to forget it either, and I think that is the same as a prayer.

‘One time very early in the morning, I opened the chest of a none-year-old girl, he said quietly. It was a desperate last try at saving her. She had been in the river a long time. She had a ponytail. But it was too late. She was gone, and I could do nothing.

I am sorry to say that I have had many deceased children laid out under my hands. But I tell you this story for another reason. Her mother did not stop kissing her baby girl. She kissed her feet and her hands and her cheeks, and kept kissing and kissing her baby girl.

People came to take the girl’s body away, but I told them to wait. The mother wasn’t screaming or wailing. She knew that her daughter was dead. But she kept kissing her baby’s feet and hands.

She was praying with her hands and lips, I think. She was saying things I don’t think we have any words for. We think that words have weight, but so often they are just shadows of what they mean. I think that mother was saying THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU and I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU and I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN  and I LOVED THE GIFT OF YOU. She kissed her baby girl for a very long time.

I made everyone wait until she was ready to wrap her baby in a blanket. She wrapped her so tenderly. I’ll always remember that.’

I don’t think we say thank you enough. Sometimes I think we hardly say thank you at all. If we were wise, we would just say thank you all day long and that would be the best prayer ever.

Dear Lord, Oh, with humility and ashes in my mouth for the careless ways I have taken your stunning gifts of love and pain and light and song for granted, thank you. Thank you. Thank and again thank you.”

            Later that day I was in the check out line at Walmart. The cashier commented on the eggplant that I was purchasing and asked my favorite way to fix it. He said in Belgium it is called “The Millionaire Plant” because is was very expensive to buy there. I responded that I didn’t think many people appreciated the eggplant in the states.

            He said, “It is so sad, day after day, I see people take large amounts of groceries to their cars, but how many stop and say ‘Thank you’ for all we have?”

            Guilty as charged! You better believe that day I said “Thank You” for all the groceries I was putting in my car.

My Prayer, Dear Father, I do want to live a life of THANK YOU all day long.

Ginnie McPherson