Forever Grateful
“Children are a gift of the LORD.”
Psalm 127:3 (NASB)
Gratitude has been my sacred echo over the last several weeks, partly because I was studying a passage from Colossians 1:1-14 in preparation for teaching a women’s Bible study last Tuesday. (You can listen here.) In his opening words to the Colossian church, Paul writes, “We always thank God…when we pray for you” (Colossians 1:3). Paul infused his prayers with gratitude and thanksgiving. We should too.
Two weeks ago after hearing a grateful mom exclaim, “There will never be enough ‘Thank You’s’” for the medical care her child received at St. Jude’s hospital, I wrote:
That’s the attitude we should have as Christians. We will never have enough thank you’s for Christ leaving the riches of his throne in heaven, coming to earth and being made in the likeness of sinful man, living a perfect life, dying a sinner’s death on a Roman cross, and bearing our sin & shame so that we can have life abundantly forever. It was the Great Exchange. Christ became poor so that we could become rich.
What is true for our salvation is also true for the other good gifts that God chooses to give us. Next to my salvation, the biggest gifts God has given me are my marriage, children, and grandchildren. A new world opened for me when Bruce and I married almost fifty years ago. Another world opened as we had our daughter and three sons. Grandparenting proved to be another whole adventure when our first granddaughter arrived thirteen years ago. With each new birth, my gratitude and prayers increased. God gave gifts of grace; I gave thanks; and the result was joy.
That joy was multiplied exponentially with Birdie James’ adoption. So were my prayers.
Charles Findlay Evans (Charlie), our first grandson, was born last Saturday, and we are thrilled. So are his five girl cousins! The three older girls are now old enough to help babysit which is a good thing since we now are blessed with three babies under 15 months! God has blessed us mightily and we give thanks.
I would be remiss if I also didn’t say that Bruce and I don’t have a day without thanking God for the gift of James Bruce. One thing I’ve learned over the last three years it that grief and gratitude are often intertwined. In the shock of those first few moments after learning of James Bruce’s death, my overwhelming emotion was gratitude for the gift of being his Mama. The reality of our loss and the grief that came with it would come later, but initially I was so very thankful for God’s gift of James Bruce and the suffering that came with him. God used him to change us as a family. All of us are very different people for having had James Bruce as a son, brother, and uncle. God used James Bruce to teach us to pray. We had to!
Right before our second child’s birth, I began crying one night and asked Bruce, “What if I don’t love this child as much as I loved our first one?” My wise husband quickly replied, “Donna, it’s never love divided; it’s love multiplied!”
He was right. The last 46 years of our parenting and grandparenting journey have truly been love multiplied. With each new family member’s arrival, our hearts have expanded, and love has multiplied.
Our prayers have also multiplied. We continue to pray that each child and grandchild will be a child of the King; a servant of the King; and a credit to his Kingdom. We also pray that God will work in each and all of us, what is pleasing to him (Hebrews 13:21).
Finally, our gratitude and joy have also multiplied as God has given each child. God gives gifts of grace; we give thanks; and the result is joy.
There will never be enough thank yous for God’s good gifts of marriage, family, children, and grandchildren. We are forever grateful.