Thanksgiving is a movement of the heart that precedes all creation, visible and invisible.
The act of thanks lives in the heart of the Creator himself – that shared recognition, deep connection, and communion of hearts that we touch in some passing way at the dinner table has primordial and eternal foundation in Him.
John calls this “the Beginning.” He calls the Son “Word” because this eternal generation is filled with infinities of meanings and inexhaustible goodness — such is the newness of life that eternally springs from the Father. Because He is the source of such eternal meaning and goodness, the Son loves His Father in an act of such contemplation that the Father sees in His Son His own holiness and glory. The Father gives thanks for His Son and the Son for the Father – and the thanksgiving of love and truth is personified in the Holy Spirit.
This is the great thanksgiving – all creation flows from it and is ordered to it so that every time we take time to give thanks to God, we raise ourselves above the work-a-day world and the exigencies of the moment, and taste with God a mystery time cannot contain. Worship that is right and just breathes this mystery even in the brokenness and difficult ambiguities of life. Now we taste such love if only between heart beats under a sincere glance tenderly exchanged – but the Trinity yearns that we might share in this meaningful and loving gaze world without end.
Amen.
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This post was first published on Beginning to Pray and is reprinted here with permission.
