On Thanksgiving

Today, it being Thanksgiving and all, I thought about gratefulness, and I came to an odd realization.
The point of a gift, whether it be from God or from someone else, isn’t gratitude. And that’s because the point of gratitude isn’t just to end in itself.
The point of gifts, and even of gratitude, is love.
Gifts don’t, or shouldn’t, only fill us with a gladness over the gift itself, but rather they ought to draw us to the one who gives them. And not only is it that we are grateful and then, as if reminded by the emotion, thank the giver; but rather, we ought to see the giver in the gift. In every blessing of God, we should see its divine origins not only secondarily, but essentially. Gratitude for the goodness of the gift should culminate in, not only lead to, love for the giver.
For example (to borrow a trope from Piper, for my own purposes), no wife (hopefully) has delighted in a gift of roses simply as roses. If all she feels is gratitude for the flowers, then it’s clear that they are what ultimately matter to her. But the flowers aren’t the point. The flowers are a manifestation of love. They are representatives. As such, the gratitude for the gift finds its proper end, its culmination and consummation, in love for the giver, because the gift itself originated in love.
So it should be with every gift we receive from God. In everything that you are thankful for today, even in everything you have, be grateful, but don’t stop at gratitude for gratitudes sake. Let the goodness of the gift be seen as coming from the goodness of the giver, let gratitude bloom into love.

-djstevens