Author: TechCommittee

Everything we have and everything we are is a gift of God’s providential care. We

understand that we’re not islands unto ourselves. We could not exist without those who have

gone before us and those who walk alongside us. God has given us forefathers in family,

country, and faith. We are recipients of what God worked through them. We know God

provides for our well-being through these means.

He gives us farmers and ranchers so we can eat. But more than that, God created and

gave us all the things those farmers and ranchers cultivate. He gave us the corn, the beans, the

wheat, the cows for milking, the steers for grilling. He gave each of those things for our

nourishment and sustenance. Without God creating and instilling in those things their taste,

their nutritional value, etc., we would not exist.

God gives us doctors, surgeons, nurses, and hospitals. He gives us medicine and medical

instruments, and, of course, He gave us everything to make those medicines and medical

instruments. He instilled in those things the properties to be utilized for those purposes.

Without God creating and instilling healing properties into those things — and without God

creating the ability within man to learn this and implement it to serve our medical needs — we

would not enjoy the health we do now.

But there’s more. He gives us gainful employment through our employers and provides

for the necessities of life through the labor of our hands:

“Then Moses said to the people of Israel, ‘See, the Lord

has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur of

the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit

of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and

with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work

in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting,

and in carving woûd for work in every skilled craft. And

he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the

son ofAhisamach of the tribe of Dan.’ “(Exodus 35:30—34)

And one step back from that, He has created and given us hands, and attached to hands

are arms with strength. He created us with minds to make those arms and hands move and

accomplish the work set before us. And with that mind, He has given us reason and senses.

That mind, because of the reason God has instilled in it, ¡s able to work through difficult

problems before we press those arms and hands into labor. It allows us to grapple with concepts

and run through scenarios instead of having to experience every situation personally. It allows

us to learn from the mistakes, as well as from the accomplishments, of ourselves and others.

This can be done for our entire body, all our skills and talents, everything that makes us … us.

So, everything we have and everything we are is a gift from Him. This is what we

confess in the First Article of the Creed when we say that we “believe in God, the Father

Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”

But that is just the First Article of the Creed. We confess two more articles that deal

with God’s provision for our spiritual well-being. He sent his Son to die and be raised on the

third day for our justification. He delivers that justification through the means of grace

(baptism, preaching and the Word of God, and the Lord’s Supper). And to give you those

means of grace, He gives pastors and teachers, etc. Literally everything we have and everything

we are ¡n this life — and the next — is an inexpressible gift from God.

And it is for this, all of this, that we give thanks. And that is what stewardship is all

about — giving thanks for God’s provision for us. To give thanks is more than having an

attitude of gratitude, more than just a feeling in our hearts.

It is an action. It begins in the heart, but it doesn’t stay there. It works its way out through

the mouth in praise for God’s gifts and in love and charity through the hands to our neighbors

in family, country, and church.

“For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey him” (The

Small Catechism, 16).

So give thanks to God for His inexpressible gifts — for everything we have and

everything we are. Do this not only in word but also in deed.