Our Thanks for God’s Providence

How important is thanksgiving? Ask a mother who gets meals ready three times each day. Ask an organist who has played for fifty years. Ask a husband who goes to work each day. Ask a nurse or doctor who provides help with illness or injury. Perhaps saying “thanks” does not take much effort, but its absence speaks volumes about our attitude toward others and toward God.
Consider the ten lepers whom Jesus healed. When only one returned, Jesus asked, “Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:18). These words of Jesus teach us that God also desires that we give Him thanks for all the blessings He freely gives us. The leper who did return to give thanks also received an additional blessing when Jesus told him, “Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).
Jesus blessed all ten lepers with physical healing, but the returned Samaritan was given spiritual blessings. In the same way, God gives physical blessings to all without our asking, as Dr. Luther states in the explanation to the Fourth Petition: “God certainly gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all the wicked; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to acknowledge this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving” (ELH p. 33). Here Jesus is not teaching us to ask God for more, but to thank God for all that He has bestowed upon us. We can also trust that in this New Year, God will continue to bless our lives with His good gifts—for both body and soul.
Thanksgiving is very important to our faith. By faith we understand that God gives us every good thing we have: food, house, clothing, work, health, government, peace—everything. Faith also understands that God provides all these good things through the work of other people. Martin Luther calls these people God’s “masks,” that is, the many people through whom God works to provide for our needs. They may be the farmer and grocer, the mechanic and computer technician, the physician and nurse, the pastor and school teacher, the store owners and distributors and truckers, the government workers and bankers.
Because God works through others, many may not recognize God’s hand in His bountiful providence, nor give thanks to Him. Faith, informed by God’s Word, believes that “He gives to all life, breath, and all things” and that “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:25, 28). The psalmist states that all of God’s creatures “wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season…You open Your hand, they are filled with good” (Psalm 104:27–28).
Through giving God thanks for His providence, we therefore humbly admit our dependence upon God to supply our needs each day and throughout the year. Thankful humility is the opposite of pride, as St. Paul wrote: “What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
Thanksgiving is important because it leads us to be content during this year. Whether God gives us much, little, or something in between, we are to trust that God will supply our needs, that His gifts are right for us, and that He will bless us with good things all the days of our lives.
Thanksgiving is important because it moves us to share the Lord’s blessings with others. Since God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20), He is also able to enrich us with every blessing and grace so that we give liberally to His Kingdom and to those around us of our time, abilities, help, and money.
Thanksgiving is good for family time, as children see parents thank God for His gifts. Especially in difficult times, they need to consider the psalmist’s words and our prayer, “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).
The editor