Living Gratefully in Change (I'm still learning from my sainted mother)

 Living Gratefully in Change (I’m still learning from my sainted mother)

The devotion I read this morning was by Ellie Roscher, Gratitude at Home, Shepherd Me O God, 2022 based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. She drew on the ideas of change in this passage, and began her thoughts with this statement. “Part of gratitude is being at peace with what is, instead of longing for what isn’t.”  This isn’t to suggest that we shouldn’t work to make positive changes in ourselves or for others; rather, it’s about our approach to day-to-day life. It’s about being grateful to God first, not only for what we have but also for what opportunities lie before us.  She asked this question. “How can we dwell in the moment without trying to manipulate it? How can we find a home in the season we find ourselves?” 

Segway to lunch at a local restaurant after church yesterday. My wife and I had just been seated and were looking at our menus when a gentleman came up to our table. Having recently returned to my hometown after being away for almost 50 years, we have come to expect to run into people who knew either me, my sister, or someone in my family. This gentleman had been my parents pastor many years ago. We chatted, and he left us with this short story about my mother. He reminded me that my mother always wrote notes to people who were ill and always included a clipping of a cartoon from the newspaper that she thought would make them smile. On one occasion a family member of his had just had surgery and when they went through the mail, upon seeing the card from my mother, he said not to open it just yet because he knew it would make him laugh too hard. Then this retired pastor told us of visiting my mother on a cancer wing of a hospital just before her death. As he asked the nurses for directions to her room, the nurse responded, “Oh we love having Irene on the floor. She brightens everyone’s day.” I’m sure that being that ill was not what my mother had planned for her life, but her example of living gratefully in the moment and being other-interested instead of self-interested gave her a peace, and still teaches me a valuable lesson. 

Roshcer ended the devotion with this.

Gratitude is wanting what is right in front of you. It is seeing this tiny, ordinary moment

quaking with holiness. Gratitude, embodied, is to find a home within. With gratitude we

hold the key to feeling at home no matter where we are…  When we are grateful for 

what is right in front of us, the present moment becomes home. Be where your feet are.

Thank God in all things. Living gratefully not only gives you peace, but it can impact others as well.