A Psalm of Thanksgiving

Good morning, Lord! Thank you for this day.

Thank you for the blessing of TIME:

Time spent with family gathering precious memories,

Time to rest and restore before diving back into work,

Time to express my gratitude to you,

Time to pray and praise with community,

Time to just be still in solitude and reflection.

You are beyond any concept of time, dear Lord…time-less and eternal.

You are the beginning and completion of all things.

Eternity is a single glance to you; An infinite measure of anything is in your hands.

And yet, you created time…for us, your creation.

You set in motion the galaxies and the planets, and their movements you orchestrated at the start and maintain forever.

The earth in its steady rotation, orbiting the sun so perfectly to give us daylight.

The moon in its own poetic path around the earth, all the while reflecting the sun with its soothing glow over our nights.

Sunrise to sunset…moonrise to its fading into the new day…TIME.

Day…Night…ever the same…revealing the faithful rhythm of our existence.

Thank you, loving Creator God…for meeting our every need before we were yet made.

You fashioned us to rely on the cycles of time. We count the hours and measure our lives by moments.

Weeks and months become seasons of change that nourish all of Creation…bringing life and death and life again.

It all functions within your perfect design, gracious Lord, for your purpose and blessing over the earth and every living thing.

And not just functionally perfect, but aesthetically perfect. You made it beautiful to all the senses.

We are also blessed by the beauty and sensory experience of all you have created!

If you did nothing more than the single act of Creation, Lord, we would have reason enough to worship and glorify your name and know you are Yahweh, the Creator, Sustainer and Lover of all!

You formed everything in both function and beauty before there was a soul to experience it!

The intricate details of our senses were designed to perfectly respond to your Creation…Eyes to see. Ears to hear. Skin to feel. Nose to smell. Tongue to taste. All for the sake of experiencing fully your glory!

O God, it’s all so great, I can hardly process the depth and breadth of your love for us!

Thank you, generous Lord. And this is just your Word made truth and life in the beginning – Genesis 1.

We haven’t even touched on the rest of the story!

Father, pour into me your Spirit of truth to help me understand it all…the grandeur of your Creation, purpose, and will.

Open my eyes to see more clearly the beauty all around me.

Help me to hear the sounds of Creation through the clutter of man-made noise.

Let the movement around me spark a new sensitivity of the effects of your Creation.

Increase my sense of smell so even the slightest minutiae can be breathed into my being and be known. Stimulate my taste buds to heighten the flavors of the bounty you have provided.

Thank you for satisfying all my physical needs, Lord. But there is something more…something deeper than the physical senses I long for.

You created in me a spirit, unlike the rest of Creation – a spirit – crafted in your image and likeness, Lord. A spirit that is supernatural, beyond the physical senses.

I pray dear Lord, for a yearning to know you more in my spiritual being.

Create in me a longing for your presence in my heart that exceeds my natural desires.

You are my God, and I am your child.

In that, I have faith and hope and life – not only of this earthly plane, which is temporary – but also of the heavenly realm, which is greater, divine and eternal.

I pray with a heart of gratitude and recognition of who you are and what you have done by the power of your Creation – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

With a heart of humility and reverence I pray, Almighty God, Creator of all things.

Amen.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.” (Acts 17:24-28)