Do you remember writing those thank you letters to grandparents, aunts and uncles, Christmas and birthdays? Long hand on notepaper. Doing it properly. Your address and the date top right and beginning, Dear… All very formal.
Receiving a ‘thank you’ from our grandchildren is not only less formal, but often more casual. We might get a text or a call – or a verbal message relayed via their parents. Are they less grateful than I was, or just less forthcoming in saying so?
Growing up I enjoyed the Just William books. Of their time and very middle class. But William was a rebel and, forced to write thank you letters, he always added a message. To a Christmas thank you, he would add: ” Please note that my birthday is on 3rd March.”
Most of us wouldn’t go as far as William, but gratitude can be somewhat transactional – if you do this, I’ll thank you, or if I do this for you, I expect you to be grateful.
But could gratitude be something deeper, a well from which we draw? An approach to life, a way of being? A way of relating to each other, to the world and, for believers, to God? Could it become a spiritual practice?
Paul thinks so. He writes to the Colossians (2:6-7) saying how pleased he is with their firmness of faith and encouraging them to continue in that faith, rooted and established and “abounding in thanksgiving.”
Chris Dawson