Gospel Gratefulness

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7, ESV

Thanksgiving Eve is not marked by our culture like its nearest sister eve; Christmas. Still, there are services at some churches on the night before Thanksgiving. As a pastor, I presided over a good number of such services. When given the opportunity to share something for which they would like to give thanks, invariably someone would take the microphone and say something along the lines of being thankful for salvation in Christ. Often this would annoy me. I know, as a pastor and as a preacher of the Gospel it shouldn’t have but, it did. I really felt it was low hanging fruit. Of course we are grateful for the Gospel! We are after all Christians gathered to usher in the holiday where we thank God. To me, at that time, it seemed cliché. It was the Sunday School answer- “God” or “Jesus” or “The Bible” or if we were talking about evil, “Satan”. But, I was wrong.

Sunday, we sang some great songs of thanksgiving. After which, I got to listen to the message by our International Worker, Todd Dinius. As Todd shared stories of people living in Bosnia where there is so little Gospel access, I was impacted by the reality of the incredible and undeserved grace of knowing Jesus in a life-giving relationship.

I was born into a family where Jesus and the good news about His rescue for me was the stuff of day-to-day life. I was surrounded by the Gospel. Contrast that to someone born in Bosnia, even into a “Christian” home there as many there would identify it. My chances of having a mom or dad who knew the Gospel in a life-changing way: 1 in 5,000. Those are heart-wrenching odds against most of the 4.3 million or so people who call Bosnia home. And how did I beat those odds? I was born in America, in a family that had already been transformed by the Gospel. Or in other words, God was gracious to me in ways that I have sadly rarely even come to comprehend.

So, might I urge you (and me!) to find some space and time to be grateful for the Gospel in this long, Thanksgiving weekend? And, might I urge you (and me) to think about Gospel access- not just for those half-way around the world but those in our own lives? Remember that just because someone lives in a country full of light it doesn’t mean that they know the life-shaping, eternity altering, good news. Let our thanksgiving abound. More than that, let Gospel gratefulness drive us to boldly share the good news that has so graciously been shared with us.