Are we characterized by gratitude?
A petite farmer's wife was struggling hard to get her donkey to pull its heavily loaded wagon up the hill. Noticing her predicament, the village preacher got behind the cart and pushed it over the top.
"Thanks so much," she gratefully said.
"I'd never have made it with just one donkey."
As we think about the horrendous disasters that have happened in the American south and other parts of the world recently, who hasn't been mindful of how much we have been spared here? Are we thankful for al these blessings we so often take for granted?
A young physician, feeling his responsibility to his fellow men, made a vow to himself to spend part of his time helping those who otherwise would be without medical attention. Accordingly, he spent several hours each week visiting the sick in the slum section of his city.
One patient, a young mother, did not seem to respond properly to the treatment he had suggested. After several visits, the doctor began to inquire in detail about how she had taken the medicine he had prescribed. Reluctantly the woman admitted that she had not taken the prescribed medicine -- she was so poverty-stricken that she didn't even have the money to buy it. Without a moment's hesitation, the doctor pulled out his billfold and counted out for her enough money to buy the medicine.
The following week, when the doctor called again on his patient, he was met at the door by the woman's daughter. You won't have to see my mommy today." she said. "She's well now. She took the money you gave her and went out and got a real doctor!"
A young physician thus learned something that day of the ingratitude and insults that the Great Physician receives every day.
Here's to us all developing an attitude of gratitude.
Pastor John Giesbrecht
