Faith | As Thanksgiving surrounds us, how many items of gratitude are on the tip of your tongue?

As we move from October pumpkins on porches to November pumpkins in pies, perhaps your holiday mojo is already amping up for greetings of Christmas cheer and “Happy New Year.”

But wait! Don’t you first want to offer Thanksgiving, and express heartfelt gratitude to someone, for something, for at least one day? Or is giving thanks not exactly your kind of festive?

I’ve heard it said that the saddest thing in the world is to see a beautiful sunset, and not know who to thank. While of course there may be sadder things, the saying does raise questions about the giving of thanks — from who to thank, to how, and why?

As a recovering ingrate myself, I find it all too easy to take gifts and givers for granted; whether it’s the love of a wonderful wife, unity within a local church, freedoms enjoyed in a vast land, to the reality of divine salvation itself — I assume much, and fail to acknowledge both blessed ones and blessedness. Often, it is as if thankfulness can “go without saying.”

In Psalm 103, King David expresses gratitude with saying: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

Yes, gratitude rightly remembers both the gift and the giver, and says so (even sings so), with good reason. Indeed, fast-forward about 3000 years from Psalm 103, and we hear modern songwriters borrowing its opening line, while suggesting “10,000 Reasons” to express the Lord’s goodness.

With songs noted, as a season of Thanksgiving surrounds, do you find on the tip of your tongue even 10 reasons for joy, along with a happy representation of delights that easily and eagerly flow out of a grateful heart?

Maybe your present fervor spies the sights and sounds of a family feast, with fine foods, fancy flavors, fragrant flowers, and friends arriving shortly for fellowship, all while Fluffy and Fido cozy up to the fireplace, above which flourishes televised football.

Relatedly, when I was growing up, once the unwrapping of holiday gifts was a wrap, there could be no watching of college football games until all “thank-you” notes had been written and submitted for approval.

For some in the house this edict could serve to expedite eked-out words of gratitude: “Dear Aunt Judy, thank you for the comfy Christmas socks. They are keeping me warm as I write this letter ... .” While this may not sound like an expression of high octane gratitude, in practice, we kids were learning a little more about how, and why, to give thanks to a giver of gifts.

Compare now this card-writing exercise to the concise catalog of glorious benefits recorded in Psalm 103! Here we find written the blessedness of a LORD “who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

How does that sound? Does it sound good, even gospel?

Hopefully it sounds that good. Because, blessedly, this song records the blessing and the blessedness of the LORD, named Jesus; who himself came to live, and die, and rise, to fill up the reality of complete forgiveness, true healing, true love, full satisfaction, and a resurrection from the pit of death itself, leading to a renewal of life unto glory, wherein the redeemed, with soul and with body, will forever “Bless the Lord.”

This news surely is worthy of grateful song. Happy Thanksgiving.