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This morning my car wouldn’t start, so I had to call out the AA. It is funny how something foreign can become so familiar within such a short space of time, such that something we could once do without becomes something we take for granted. And it is funny how when something is always there, we don’t thank God for it as we do when something new comes along. We pray for safe travels when we go on holiday, and thank Him on our arrival; but the daily trip to work and back becomes a routine normality which we don’t thank Him for. We pray for sound employment, and thank Him when He responds; but we take our daily bread without the same words of thanks. We ask for good health when struck down with illness, and thank Him when we recover; but as we go about our everyday business in good health, do we forget to thank Him, who has power over all things?

When I first got the car I was wondering at all the blessings which God has bestowed on me. Now I get in the car in the morning, drive to work and park, failing to say, “All Praise is for God,” for this blessing. Just as I make my sandwiches at lunch time without saying, “Thank you Lord.” Just as I wake in the morning without thanking God for the opportunity of another day to better myself. Just as I write an e-mail without thanking God for giving me sight (and what an amazing thing that is). Just as I take so many things for granted and do not express my gratitude to the bestower of all things.

It reminds me of the words of a poet: “If my thanking God for His blessings is a blessing, then I must thank Him in the same measure again. How can one thank Him save by His grace as time goes on, and life goes by? If a good thing comes, I rejoice heartily; if a bad one comes, I receive a reward. In both cases He gives me a gift too large for the minds of men, and the land and sea.”

I think, today, I won’t moan about the frost killing my battery. I think I’ll thank God giving me time to reflect on His blessings. How perfect He is. How we fail to express the gratitude He deserves.