Things To Be Thankful For: Immanuel:God with us.

Monday 2 January 2012

Immanuel:God with us.

Can I say I haven't got round to writing this blog for quite a while. However it doesn't mean that I haven't been thankful , though of course not thankful enough.
Thinking of Christmas and my birthday today I can't help thinking of the blessing of God being with us, of God becoming Man in Christ and though that fully experiencing our angst, pain, suffering as well as the many good things, fully understanding our need of friendship and our need of God.
I want to thank you Lord for being my friend through thick and thin, through good times as well as bad and for never leaving or forsaking me.

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Gracias

In his book entitled “Gracias,” Henri Nouwen talks about his experience in Peru and Bolivia, he writes: "The title of this (book) summarizes what I found, learned, and heard. The word that I kept hearing, wherever I went, was: Gracias! It sounded like the refrain from a long ballad of events. Gracias a usted, gracias a Dios, muchas gracias––thank you, thanks be to God, many thanks! I saw thousands of poor and hungry children, I met many young men and women without money, a job, or a decent place to live. I spent long hours with sick, elderly people, and I witnessed more misery and pain than ever before in my life. But, in the midst of it all, that word lifted me again and again to a new realm of seeing and hearing: 'Gracias! Thanks!”

"In many of the families I visited nothing was certain, nothing predictable, nothing totally safe. Maybe there would be food tomorrow, maybe there would be work tomorrow, maybe there would be peace tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not. But whatever is given––money, food, work, a handshake, a smile, a good word, or an embrace––is a reason to rejoice and say gracias. What I claim as a right, my friends in Bolivia and Peru received as a gift; what is obvious to me was a joyful surprise to them; what I take for granted, they celebrate in thanksgiving; what for me goes by unnoticed became for them a new occasion to say thanks.”

"And slowly I learned. I learned what I must have forgotten somewhere in my busy, well-planned, and very "useful" life. I learned that everything that is, is freely given by the God of love. All is grace. Light and water, shelter and food, work and free time, children, parents and grandparents, birth and death––it is all given to us. Why? So that we can say gracias, thanks: thanks to God, thanks to each other, thanks to all and everyone.”