Thanking the Giver

Hello, my name is Travis, and I am your new Fractured Saint.  I also blog at The Boy with the Thorn in His Side and Disturbed Christians.  I write about faith, politics, culture, music, current events, mental illness, and anything else I can think of.

Years ago my fiancé and I saw a Native American demonstrate how the ancient tribes lived. He showed the audience the way his ancestors made fire, and how powerful their seemingly primitive weapons were. He picked out a nearby tree, but before he made the first chop, he placed a small tobacco offering at the base of the tree. “Before we take a life,” he explained, “we give an offering of thanks to the Great Earth Mother, who gives life to all.”

God has a funny way of using people of different faiths to illustrate His basic concepts. For the rest of the day, I thought about what the Native American said, and how I have responded to God’s gifts. Since I’ve always had a roof over my head, and plenty of food on the table, it’s easy to take it all for granted. But others aren’t so lucky. For them, reality is going to bed hungry every night and walking filthy streets with no shoes on.

Even those who have been through poverty in the past (whether it’s financial, spiritual, emotional, etc) sometimes forget where they came from. Out of the ten lepers Jesus healed, only one came back to thank Him. We can be like those nine lepers. We can forget what condition we were in before Jesus touched us.

Everything we have is from God, and all He wants in return is a small offering of thanks.