[Ed.] Thanksgiving: Grace… Action!
Published: October 10, 2005
Every second Monday in October Canada celebrates Thanksgiving.
I arrived in Quebec only much later in my life and have picked up my French here. It’s a very functional French. I think it’s quite good in fact for someone who “just” picked it up; only the pained expressions of people around me remind me that I use masucline and femine forms however I please. A puzzled “Hein?!?!” (”Huh?!” or “What?!”) at times serves as feedback that apparantly I still make sentences like “Yesterday I eat food good”.
Not hindered then by any particular language skills I’m enthralled with the beauty of the Quebec-French name for Thanksgiving. Here in Quebec we call it “action de la grâce”.
I latch on to the word “grace”. Grace: an act of kind assistance. Action: the bringing about of an alteration by force or through a natural agency; a thing done; the accomplishment of a thing usually over a period of time, in stages, or with the possibility of repetition.
Don’t you think that translated like that, and put together like that, they form a simply beautiful picture conjuring up endless possibilities of kindness, assistance, humanity, foregiveness, sweetness, aid, help, charity, comfort, patience — and so much more?
I can just see this column, this article, this “editorial” stream out of this keyboard! Help you neighbor (you know, that jerk next door you suspect made your cat disappear…), forgive that family member that bitter fight (sure, even though she started it and would never come back on her words!), feed the hungry (although you have no clue where or how to start)…
Man, I can just see it happen…
But I’m sure you get the picture. Always did, didn’t you? It takes a rocket scientist to figure out how not to want to do those things. We? We know better.
So no, towards the end of this Thanksgiving Day I’m amazed by the things I said thanks for — and those I omitted. I said thanks that we could all sit there around the table without having to hurry so we could visit one of us in the hospital. This whole “health thing” was sooo obvious to the kids that their rolling eyes actually made the sound of marbles stirring around in a pot.
I said thanks for the providence we receive, not really knowing what to say or think about those who have little or nothing … but anyway, this day is ours, right?
I left out every facility I have. Sight, hearing, smell, speech, mobility, thought. Everything we have received this year: too numerous to mention when you start to think of it.
And I thought; what would I have said “thank you” for had all these things not been?
Hmmm…
When I was young, or at least younger, I read a serie of books
In her book The Hiding Place she recounts how her sister Betsie started to say grace in the barrack they were in.
“‘Corrie!’ she said excitedly. ‘He’s given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!’
“I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch. ‘It was in First Thessalonians,’ I said. We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving Scheveningen. In the feeble light I turned the pages. ‘Here it is: “Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all…” It seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck.
“‘Go on,’ said Betsie. ‘That wasn’t all.’
“‘Oh yes:…”Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus–’”
“‘That’s it, Corrie! That’s His answer. “Give thanks in all circumstances!” That’s what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!’
“I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul-aired room.
“‘Such as?’ I said.
“‘Such as being assigned here together.’
“I bit my lip. ‘Oh yes, Lord Jesus!’
“‘Such as what you’re holding in your hands.’
“I looked down at the Bible. ‘Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all the women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.’
“‘Yes,’ said Betsie. ‘Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear!’ She looked at me expectantly. ‘Corrie!’ she prodded.
“‘Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds.’
“‘Thank You,’ Betsie went on serenely, ‘for the fleas and for–’
“The fleas! This was too much. ‘Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.’
“”Give thanks in all circumstances,” she quoted. ‘It doesn’t say, “in pleasant circumstances.” Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.’
“And so we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.
[…]
“One evening I got back to the barracks late from a wood-gathering foray outside the walls. A light snow lay on the ground and it was hard to find the sticks and twigs with which a small stove was kept going in each room. Betsie was waiting for me, as always, so that we could wait through the food line together. Her eyes were twinkling.
“‘You’re looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself,’ I told her.
“‘You know, we’ve never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,’ she said. ‘Well–I’ve found out.’
“That afternoon, she said, there’d been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they’d asked the supervisor to come and settle it.
“But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why?”
“Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: ‘Because of the fleas! That’s what she said, “That place is crawling with fleas!’”
“My mind rushed back to our first hour in this place. I remembered Betsie’s bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for.
– Corrie ten Boom
Wow.
I felt quite proud, quite good about myself, you know that? Here I was bestowing values on my children! Showing them how to be thankful … for housing, warmth, health… for anything positive that anyone is thankful for.
I think that what I should have said is something like;
“Thanks for the problems, struggles and hardship I’ve encountered so far. I feel that although I didn’t enjoy one bit of any of them, somehow I would be a very different person today if I hadn’t gone through them.
Thanks for bitter, intense fights. Shortly after them I see how impatient I can be, how much more tender I could have been.”
Give thanks in all circumstances - I don’t think you can write a shorter “positive living” tip.
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