RECEIVING A GIFT

Richard Beck, professor and author wrote,

“Gratitude is our emotional response to receiving a gift. So when we express thanks for our life we step into an experience of grace. (Grace and gift are the same word in the New Testament.) True, as increasingly skeptical people we offer up this expression of thanks “into nowhere, always in doubt.” Offering prayers of gratitude seems “childish,” like believing in fairy tales. Regardless, expressing thanks is “seemly,” proper, and right. Our heads can’t believe, but our hearts do. We face the Mystery and offer of prayers of thanks. 
This is religious experience in a secular age, living between “doubt and praise.” We are trapped in our heads trying to solve theological puzzles, banging our heads against intellectual walls. Yet our hearts long to express thanks, thirsting to praise, to step into the light of grace.”

I say, if we cannot thank God for each other… thank God for Yosemite and Yellowstone … just see if the parks and the people don’t meet and answer, ‘You are welcome.’ Then, ‘we step into the light of grace.’

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” Jesus