Psalm 8:3-4 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
As we drove north on Route 23, An overwhelming sense of thankfulness struck me. We had attended my high school class reunion in southern Ohio that weekend, and were headed back to Pennsylvania. Although years had passed since I last visited my hometown, the memories were as sharp as if I’d graduated yesterday. Conversations with friends who shared a common history reminded me of River Days and cheerleading and our Speech teacher, Mr. Roland. Chip and I put flowers on Mom’s grave, drove by Grandma and Grandpa’s old house on Maple Street and ate hamburgers at Hickies. When we drove past the McDonalds where we had always said goodbye to Dad, I found my eyes welling up with tears. What an outpouring of God’s love and kindness toward me to orchestrate the last two days.
I felt like I was swimming in gratitude.
When David wrote Psalm 8, I bet he was swimming in gratitude, too. As he contemplated the vast greatness of God, he could hardly grasp that such an awesome, majestic Creator would not only “think-up” man, but place such a high value on him. The God of the universe entrusted us humans to be in charge of his whole creation! Imagine that! And if giving us a purpose to live wasn’t enough, God also cares for us. He cares about every nook and cranny of our lives. What kind of God is that?
The more we see the Living God, the more we can’t help but be grateful. For who he is. For what he does. And for how he cares about us. My goodness, scripture says he even knows the number of hairs in our head (Luke 12:17). And he promises to turn even the awful things that happen to us into something good if we look to him (Romans 8:28).
I’m sure a weekend in Portsmouth, Ohio, won’t elicit the same response in you that it did in me. But be assured the God who made you and loves you is working in the details of your life. I pray you see it. And I pray you, too, find yourself swimming in gratitude.