Jesus asked, “Were not
all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return to give
praise to God except for this foreigner?” Then He said to him, “Rise and go,
your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:17-19
And Jesus said to him,
“Having risen, be going on, thy faith has saved thee.” Young’s Literal
Translation.
Saved thee. It’s sozo in
Greek. Sozo means salvation. It means
true wellness, complete wholeness. To live sozo is to live the full life. Jesus
came that we might have life to the full; He came to give us sozo. And when did
the leper receive sozo–the saving to the full, whole life? When he returned to
give thanks.
Our very saving is
associated with our gratitude. But. . . .of course. If our fall was the non-eucharisteo, the ingratitude, then salvation
must be intimately related to eucharisteo, the giving of thanks. The
leper’s faith was a faith that said thank you. Is that it? Jesus counts
thanksgiving as integral in a faith that saves.
We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks.
Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if
not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence our acceptance of whatever
He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation our Yes! to His grace.
Thanksgiving is inherent to a true salvation experience;
thanksgiving is necessary to live the well, whole, fullest life. Ann Voskamp, 1000 Gifts
He who sacrifices
thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the
salvation of God. Psalm 50:23
So this morning I sat wrapped up in the old orange blanket
by the barely crackling fireplace and watched the sun grow bright through the Mt
Lemmon pine trees. And I wrote down thanksgiving for each of my forty students
and for each of the other staff people at my little school, Image of God. I
wrote thanksgiving for 100 gifts from God.
And yesterday was Halloween. And I gave thanks for this
opportunity for silly creativity. And Isaac did a brilliant job of dressing as
a nerd with the taped-up glasses, and Lesay nailed the eighties in all of their
neon glory and well, Reverend Susan captured every single nuance of The Wicked
Witch of the West. And we all walked over to Armory Park in the afternoon and
ate whipped cream and chocolate and caramel sauce pies with our hands behind
our backs to see who could do it first, and pushed oranges with our noses
through an orange-cone obstacle course, and ate pumpkin cookies and drank fruit juices until it was time to
go home.
And I have this writing club during Friday enrichment
sometimes, and the three kids and I
light a candle and try to write. And yesterday Jazmine took my little
laptop and wrote a story that took our breath away. And the first sentence is Hearing the gun shot BLAM never thinking
twice running towards him is he okay? And the last sentence is I want to be face to face with this man and
ask him why? cause that deserves to be spoken. And we have a little
revision to do, but that moment changed all of our way of seeing her forever.
And now she is a Writer.
And Sebastian must have asked me a million jillion times How am I behaving, Miss? because I had
promised a phone call home today. And he was the first one done with his
science quiz and got thirty-three out of thirty-five, which was pretty amazing
and also changed how we both see him.
And my co-teacher walked through this spider web geometry
lesson, pretty much using every single one of the Essential Elements of
Instruction, and it was beautiful.
So today I have my quizzes graded. My powerpoints
on the jump drive. An email from Mike Birrer explaining Saturday school workday
at an apartment complex. And a heart full of praise.
Ooops. And my co-teacher just called in sick. Wow.
Gonna be a full day.
And a heart full of praise.
Satisfy us
by your loving-kindness in the morning so shall we rejoice and be glad all the
days of our life. Psalm 90:14
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