To Whom Are You Grateful? By Whom Are You Blessed?

This time of year, the couple of months just after the "big Christmas rush," there's not much going on. So, the marketing geniuses that be look for ways to keep the wave going. Awards shows and the Super Bowl. There's crazy money in product endorsements and commercials, parties, fashion trends and downloads. But over and over, those exploited by said geniuses (Don't feel too sorry for them, they are paid handsomely), those who take the stage and stand in the spotlight go on and on about how grateful they are and defer any credit to being #blessed. But by whom? And this sort of thing doesn't stop with celebs. Someone on social media posts how grateful they are for the view from their 5-star hotel room. Without a doubt! It's a gorgeous view, I'm sure, and the pictures won't come close to doing it justice. But if you don't believe in the God of the Bible, the Creator that I and many others worship and have worshiped over the millennia, the One True God, to whom are you grateful? The universe? An inanimate, created entity? 

There's this thing about gratitude, a warm, gushy, happy kind of thing. It's joyous, weightless; it bubbles up from deep within us without our even summoning it or being able to restrain it. It overflows into smiles and teary-eyed thank-yous to --who? I mean, if you've got no one to thank, if you can't (or won't) attribute this bubbling to anything more than butterflies in your stomach or kombucha, what then? Let me suggest a target upon whom to land your little dart of gratitude, a wellspring from whom to draw as you seek blessing. Almighty God. Elohim. 

Romans 1:18-23 says:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Simply put, ain't none of us ignorant. Those who have the capacity to see and reason, know. We all sin, and we know when we do it. We know we shouldn't be doing 70 in a 55, but here we are. We know we shouldn't eat a handful of grapes before the cashier weighs them, but here we are. And as for our relationship to God? Look around! If you think He doesn't exist, study the bees, ecosystems, space, physics, chemistry, physiology, neuroscience, horticulture. All of creation and its natural laws testify to His forward thinking, His intelligence, His organizational skills, His power, His creativity!

So, where does someone like me --the 70 in the 55 girl-- get off thinking I could accomplish anything without someone like Him? How do I --the chipmunk-looking girl standing here in Produce --stack up against a God like that? Here I am, breaking the law just to shave off a few extra seconds or catch a three-minute sugar rush, when God, the God of the Bible created time and acres of vineyards all over the earth! I can't do anything good without Him! Even on my best days, the days I'm not mashing pedals or pinching fruit, my lungs need something called oxygen. His invention. (Oh, yeah, and so are my lungs.) When I'm trying to be kind and sweet and encourage someone or save a puppy or something, I need mobility and brainpower and speech and a puppy. All His ideas. All things He holds in place.

But there's more. When that little dart of gratitude lands on some obscure thought, some manmade being or essence, God is robbed of the glory due Him. When the wellspring of blessing is declared to be someone or something born this side of eternity --or declared to be really nothing at all, just some sort of ridiculous platitude or trendy idea, we become fools, our hearts become darkened, and we exchange the glory of an incorruptible God for something that will never last. 

So, if you're feeling grateful, ask yourself where you're choosing to direct that gratitude. If you're dying to tell someone how #blessed you are, make sure you tell them the True Source of that blessing. And make sure you know Him first.