Did I Forget to Thank You?

Acts 14:17
Yet he has not left himself without testimony:  He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their season; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.

For years now, my husband, Danny, and I have fed both birds and squirrels in our back yard.  Though the squirrels cannot raid the actual bird feeders, we spread sunflower seeds on the ground for them and entice them, too, with corn-cob looking treats especially for our furry mischief makers.  We never tire of watching the squirrels' playful and often comical antics as they forage for food and chase one another up and down trees or across the yard.

And one would think that after the countless times I've reloaded the feeders and leave a generous offering of seeds for the squirrels, they would know I'm not a human to be feared.  Oh, mind you, I've crept up pretty close to them, especially if they are absorbed in gorging themselves and seemingly oblivious to what's happening in their environs.

Yet the moment they catch a glimpse of me, it's as if they've seen the Boogieman.  Off they scamper in a mad frenzy to escape my imagined clutches.

I know the squirrels are keeping their eyes on me from a safe distance, though, because in the short time it takes me to enter the garage, go upstairs and into the kitchen, I can see from my windows that they have already returned to the feasting site.  Eating contentedly, they act as if I have never been there.  And most certainly, in their little minds, I have little or nothing to do with the reappearance of plenteous offering on their dirt floor of a table.

As I observe their back-to-normal activities from the height and distance or our deck, I can't help but feel a bit wistful.  Maybe I've spent too many hours in The Glade, but there's something in me which yearns for a thank you.  Not in the spoken word, mind you, for only Grey aka Racer can do that :), but in the hanging-around-at-a-not-so-safe distance, making eye contact, knowing without a doubt from whom the seeds have come.  I long for the squirrels to acknowledge me, their benefactor, in some small, yet meaningful, way.

And I find myself wondering, is this the way God feels when we fail to acknowledge Him as the One who "provides [us] with plenty of food and fills [our] hearts with joy?"  Like the squirrels, do we scurry away from the Source of Every Blessing mistakenly thinking we can provide for ourselves without God's help?  Are we avoiding eye contact with our Lord in order to follow our own wills and pursue our own wants?

I pray, for the sake of us all, that this is not the case.  

For the Lord, our God, has given us His true and faithful testimony.  He alone provides.  He alone forgives.

He alone saves us from our sins.

And He loves us.

Even when we forget to say, "Thank you."

~

Have you thanked the Lord today?

Prayer:  Father, every good gift comes, most generously, from You.  May we always acknowledge that and give You the honor, the glory and the thanks You so richly deserve.  In Jesus' name, amen.