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“In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”  — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Because God is the Creator of all good things, because God loves us wholly and without condition, because God is full of grace, we respond in gratitude. We are freed by God to live our lives abundantly, to see all that we are and all that we have as pure gift. God’s love is pure gift.

How could we respond with anything other than gratitude? Unless we get confused and begin to believe that we ourselves have done or said something that merits God’s love. It is impossible to lack gratitude in light of all that God has done for us, unless of course, we buy into the notion that we somehow deserve all that we have because we’ve earned it.

God is God, even when we think we are. God is God, despite our fears and our doubts. God is the faithful one in this relationship. God holds fast to us, no matter what. And God’s people have needed to reminded of that in every generation.

This message is excerpted from “Faith Reflections – Gratitude” by Megan Jones in the July 2012 Café online magazine. Today we commemorate Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, 1945.