In all circumstances, give thanks

Posted on by xvh2175gmailcom

The Cornucopia is a symbol of abundance that today in North America is often associated with Thanksgiving.

This ancient symbol often makes its way to the dinner tables as a horn-shaped wicker basket which is filled and overflowing with all kinds of fruits and vegetables that are festive to the holiday. This horn-of-plenty, horn-of-nourishment, horn-of-abundance, is there to remind us of the many many blessings that overflow our lives. 

Yet, strangely enough, this horn-of-nourishment often includes the peculiar fruit of the gourd. A gourd is an excessively large fruit that is misshapen, full of knots and funky colours, and too bitter to eat. Why do we include the bitter gourd amidst the abundance of goodness on our tables? Why a bitter and useless fruit in the horn of plenty? 

This gourd is to remind us that some of God’s greatest blessings are bitter. Unanswered prayers. Rejection. Grief. Pain and suffering. God does not wish that we suffer. He is all good and all holy. Yet God knows what is for our own good and God works where there is bitterness. Many of us have faced lots of bitterness, this year especially. Yet we can give thanks always.

In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Paul does not qualify when we should be thankful, or what we should be thankful for. Paul says we are to be thankful in ALL circumstance and he means ALL circumstance. This is no metaphor, the previous two verses are equally unqualified, pray without ceasing and rejoice always.

We are in Christ Jesus. And because we are in Christ Jesus, just as there is no qualification in grace from God, His blessing extends to all of our lives. This includes the good and the bad, our light and our shadows, happiness and sadness, the sweet and the bitter.

As we are in Christ Jesus, the Lord’s will is that we always pray, we always rejoice, and we always give thanks. As Christians, the world’s circumstance does not define who we are and how we act.

So, when things do not go our way, when we face hardship and struggle, when we face our own brokenness, we give thanks for the blessings and remind ourselves that God is Lord of All Creation, and that the whole of our lives, bitter and sweet, overflows from the abundance of God’s love.