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.
