We don’t miss what we’ve never known. But when people or things are an important part of our lives, we miss them dearly when they’re no longer with us. Yet, all too often, we take them for granted until they are taken away. For example, we often don’t appreciate health until we lose it; food, until it’s scarce; safety, unless it’s in doubt; peace, until it’s threatened.
Ironically, that which we most prize is often what we most take for granted: the love of home and family, liberty and harmony, health and happiness. We often don’t even think about the many commonplace but precious blessings in our lives, like the air around us. Think for a moment of harvest and home, of warm memories and loving associations, of meaningful work and wholesome leisure, of the beauties of nature and the wonders of living. Even our heartaches can become, in time, a source of gratitude and wisdom.
Some five decades ago on this broadcast, Richard L. Evans expressed a universal theme of thanksgiving: “Whether we think we have much or little, we have cause to give thanks for everything that is ours—for the food we eat, for friends and freedom, for the warmth we feel from the sun, for the companionship of people, for the leaves that fall and again come forth, for the rain that filters through the soil, for the beauty and providence of the earth—for the very air we breathe; for the very life we live.”[i]
All good things are gifts from a loving God. Wait not until such rich blessings go away to appreciate them more fully.
Program #3979
[i] The Everlasting Things (1957), 33–34.