To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything he has given us ”“ and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful man or woman knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.
–Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude (New York: Farrar, Straus and Geroux, 1956), p. 33
What a great quote this is. As I read it over and over again this morning I found myself coming back again and again to the phrase “is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God.” I considered wonder–a word meaning “a source of admiration, amazement, or awe; a marvel;” and pondered the challenge to be aware of and alive to new such sources “constantly.”
Great stuff.
Similar to Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in chapter 1: 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe…
I can’t get enough of him