It would have been enough

I'm feeling well and trusting God for blood counts that will allow us to proceed with treatment this morning. Chuck's mouth is slowly improving; we surely didn't expect the surgical removal of one broken tooth to cause this much trouble!

We plan to leave early tomorrow for Indiana, where we'll see most of our family at some point over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The Jewish people have a "Thanksgiving" tradition in their Passover ritual. Someone will recite one of God's wonderful deeds in the past, and the people respond by singing "Dayyenu," which loosely translates to "It would have been enough for us." Even if God did only that one thing, it would have been enough for us to keep on praising Him forever. But of course, He is unable to stop with only one gracious act. He keeps on blessing.

As Christians, we could also sing "Dayyenu." Even if Jesus had only come as a human to teach and heal, it would have been enough to deserve our praise forever. But He did more; He went to the cross, identifying with us in our sins and washing them away. That would have been enough for us! Then He went further and rose from death, destroying its power over us forever. Could we ever have imagined a God who would do all this?

These thoughts are based on the latest edition of "A Slice of Infinity," by Jill Carattini of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. She titled it "Crescendo of Thanksgiving." Her closing paragraph says, in part:

"God is always moving beyond our imaginings. . . . As we live further into our conversions, as we tell the stories of God's acts in our lives and in history, as we remember again the unfathomable mercies of Christ, might our gratitude be heard across the land, a rising crescendo of thanksgiving for the one who is worthy of our praise."

Can you hear it?

Giving thanks,
Carol