Have you ever watched the birds and chickens when they are taking a drink? I love to see them. First, they put down their heads for the water, and then they look up to the sky, as if to give thanks to the One who provides them with food and breath and all things. What a precious lesson for us! We may well “behold” them, for how often do they not put us to shame?
Have you ever thought of how often the Lord Jesus “looked up,” and yet how often we look “this way” and “that way,” but do not “look up”? I doubt not the “looking up” has many meanings, all precious, but just now I wish you would “behold the fowls of the air” (Matt. 6:2626Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:26)) as they take their drink.
Man has so much to thank God for, and he is made so that naturally he will look up, while the birds and beasts naturally look down. And yet, there is that little bird, it only is getting a drop of water, but it “looks up,” and there is man with all the blessings God has showered upon him, and yet, like “the man with the muck rake,” he is ever looking down!
Our Pattern
But think of our portion, dear fellow believer, and see if our hearts will not look up with thankful adoration! That for which we have to give thanks seems to start from one infinitely great Center and extends out in waves of blessings. And that Center surely is Christ Himself.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Our hearts cannot help but reply, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” To all eternity this will surely be the unceasing echo of our hearts, “Thanks be unto God!” “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15)!
And then “with Him,” what else do we get? “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:3232He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)). What more can we want? Wondrous grace! Wondrous love! Strange we should need such an admonition as,
“and Be Ye Thankful,”
but such we are, that we do need it. But though, perhaps, we could “want” no more, yet there is more, if such be possible.
How can our hearts help but “look up” with one great overflow of thanks and praise and worship to the One who has done all things for us?
I have thought (though I may be wrong) that the “all things” given us “with Him” perhaps refer more to earthly things, while “all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ” are heavenly ones (though they belong to us now).
Well may it be written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:9-109But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9‑10)), yet how little we enter into them. When we get home and see Himself and all that is really ours in Him, surely there will be no more spirit in us, and, “With joyful wonder we’ll exclaim, The half hath not been told,” as we just fall down before Him and worship!
But I sometimes wonder if we realize what the “all things” imply. We gladly accept “the blessings” (as we call them), even though we often forget to copy the birds and look up to give thanks for them, but how about the other things — the things we don’t usually count blessings? They are part of the “all things,” and the Word clearly says, “In everything give thanks.” How about the “reproaches,” the “necessities,” the “persecutions,” the “distresses”? Can we say with Paul, “I take pleasure” in them? Have we learned to give thanks for them?
Our Perfect Example
You remember, after the Lord Jesus was rejected by the cities where He had labored so much — Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin — though He upbraids them, yet He rejoices in Spirit and can say, “I thank Thee, O Father.” This is very wonderful and very beautiful; it is “holy ground” we are treading here.
If we turn to Colossians 1:11-1211Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:11‑12), we will find that for such a spirit we need to be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.” I well remember the first time I noticed those verses in Colossians. It was a good many years ago, and I was eager to do some “great thing” for Christ. As I read over that display of power and might — “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power” — I stopped there and thought, “Ah, this will be to do some very great thing,” but what was my amazement, perhaps dismay, to read, “Unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father.” That was not the kind of “great thing” I was looking for. You remember when the Lord called Paul, He did not speak of the “great things” he was to do for His sake, but He did say, “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:1616For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (Acts 9:16)).
May you and I, dear fellow Christian, have grace given us to learn this wondrous lesson, “In everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:1818In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)). It is a lesson the flesh can never learn, and to learn it, we need to learn to be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power” — just to be able ever to rejoice in spirit and look up and say, “I thank Thee, O Father”!
Young Christian, Vol. 15