When Thanksgiving Day comes ’round, it always reminds us how numberless
are our blessings. This is true even of the visible blessings which could
be listed on paper, if there were a volume large enough to hold them. It
is also true of a great body of invisible blessings. We might call them
our blessings of deliverance. No less important than the things which we
have been given are the things from which we have been saved. What the
extent of that group of blessings is we can never know.
We are here because God did not see fit to call us away this year. Our
homes still shelter us because He has not decided to foreclose the
mortgage He held upon them before we were born. We still receive our
livings because He has not seen fit to discontinue honoring the old
petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Our loved ones are still
about us because He has not seen fit to sunder any of the bands that
hold them to earth.
What sad misfortunes might have come to us, and did not! What pitiful
events might have occurred, and did not! What dark storm clouds might
have arisen, when the skies remained clear! Every absence of trouble
is a mercy of God.
Our fathers used to have a phrase in their prayers that expressed this
idea. They used to say: “Lord, we thank Thee that it is as well with us
as it is.” That old prayer, so often on their lips, is worth repeating
each time we come to the Throne of Mercy and Grace. How much worse things
might have been than they are! God has blessed us with incalculable good.
He has also preserved us from incalculable evil. Let us not forget to
praise him for the storms that did not break, the tears that did not fall,
the problems that did not arise, the disappointments we did not suffer,
the heartaches we did not feel, the blossoms that did not wither, the
hopes that were not shattered, and the graves that were not made.