“In that wonderful day you will sing: ‘Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is!’” (Isaiah 12:4, New Living Translation)
The church that I attended this past Sunday sang a hymn that was probably sung in many churches on this Sunday before Thanksgiving. In the United States, even among very traditional-hymn-singing churches, it is pretty much relegated to the Sunday before or after Thanksgiving.
The song is “Now Thank We All Our God.” It was composed around 1636 by German pastor Martin Rinkart (1586-1649). During the week or so that we pause to give thanks, these words seem most appropriate:
“Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices;
Who, from our mothers’ arms, hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.”
As we get ready to enjoy family, more food than we need (or should eat), football games on TV (for those who do that), and Black Friday shopping (for those who are completely insane), it makes sense to be grateful for all our blessings.
However, the backdrop of this song could not be more dissimilar to our “Thanksgiving” experience. Martin Rinkart served as pastor in the German city of Eilenburg as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) raged. Because Eilenburg was a walled city, it became an overcrowded refuge filled with disease and hunger. During the year of 1637, Rinkart conducted almost 5,000 funeral services—including one for his own wife.
That puts his words in a different perspective, doesn’t it?
Perhaps the most powerful word in the first line of that hymn is “now.” If we can only manage to be thankful in times of abundance and health, our gratitude is pretty shallow. But if we can find gratitude in our “even now,” maybe we are beginning to scratch the surface of real Thanksgiving.
Tomorrow, I’ll share a powerful related lesson I learned on a mission trip to Mexico.
Question: What is your “even now” that makes gratitude difficult?
Leave a comment below. I’d be honored to hear your story.
