At the root of Gratitude

One Wed. eve. my husband and I went to the neighborhood church for a quiet Thanksgiving service. When the pastor asked for the sharing of thanks, Mitch, our neighbor, who has special challenges of his own, spoke up and said he was thankful that we came. (He had invited us.) Everyone looked at us and the pastor acknowledged his words.

During the evening, the pastor shared the story about the 10 lepers. (Luke 17)

Brief synopsis:
There were 10 lepers who cried out to Jesus to be healed and He sent them on their way to show the Priests in order to be pronounced 'clean' and as they went, they were all healed, but only one, a Samaritan, returned to give thanks.

The pastor shared that leprosy was the common thread that united these ten men of different ethnic backgrounds. When our own pastor recently spoke about this story, He emphasized the cries of the ten lepers. "Unclean! Unclean!" and "Have mercy!"
But only the tenth leper, a Samaritan, came back to cry out with the same intensity of his first two cries, "Thank you!"

I've been thinking about why the Samaritan came back.

I'm not sure that the others were ungrateful.
I think that after the Priest's pronounced them 'clean',
they were so happy and excited they went home to their
families and were accepted right back into society's graces.

But the Samaritan did not so quickly forget
how it felt to be an outcast.
He had been an outcast since birth
because of his race and the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.

Perhaps, even as the ten were traveling toward the Priests,
and discovered their healing,
they began to divide back into their ethnic groups.
Jews with Jews.
The Samaritan with himself.

Perhaps they had all been united in their sickness,
but when healed, they could not remain united in their joy.

I don't know. We can only guess about the nine.

But we do know that the Samaritan returned to give thanks.
The nine received and kept their healing.
But the healed Samaritan received fellowship with Jesus and wholeness.
"Your faith has made you whole," Jesus said.

I think that humility is at the root of gratitude.
And I think that gratitude is at the root of wholeness.

I think there is a remembering of who and what we were before
Jesus came on the scene.
Before He heard our cries "Unclean!"
and "Have Mercy!"

Gratitude says,
"Without You, I would still be a leper."
"Without You, I would still be on the wrong side of the tracks."
"Without You, I would still be without a song."

Surely, He has called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light.
Surely, we love Him so very much
because we have been forgiven so very much.

We must not dwell on from where He's brought us
nor from what we've been cleansed
but we must not forget it either.

I want to be one who returns to thank Him
after He's healed me.
I don't want to forget to thank Him just because
I am accepted by others and no longer feel the pain
of rejection.

I don't want to forget Him after He's made me look good.

Thank You for cleansing me.
Thank You for accepting me.
Thank You for knowing me.
Thank You for calling me 'friend.'
Thank You, Dear and Holy God.