What Is It?
April 26, 2024
The Grateful Heart
April 22, 2018
And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. – LUKE 7:37-38
“Tank oo.” Wonderful words, if not grammatically precise. That was the way our grandchildren would express gratitude when they were toddlers. We cared not that the little ones dropped the “h” because to our ears the sound was a delight.
God has joy in our gratitude, not because He needs us to thank Him, but because He knows the grateful heart is healthy. People who knew her would have said the woman who washed Jesus’ feet was morally sick. But they couldn’t know that Jesus’ and His grace had brought her hope, a reason to live. The gratitude gushes out with her tears. “Heart water,” Martin Luther calls them. The alabaster vial full of perfume shows the extravagance of her gratitude. Lots of embarrassing things here, this letting down of the hair and bathing the feet of the Carpenter. But the woman doesn’t care. Her heart so overflows with thankfulness that nothing else matters.
Consider the things you get depressed over not having. Let them bring to mind what you do have, and give God the sweet fragrance of your “tank oo.”
Today’s Focus
Thank God as His child for lavishing your life with blessings. Thank Him for specific things.
