Thankful...

Today we had an awesome church service. Due to the size of our congregation, we normally have three church services on Sunday morning. This morning, however, was different. We had one big combined service in the auditorium of our local university.

Much of the service was devoted to instilling in us a true sense of thankfulness, and great care was taken to design the service to facilitate that in many ways. The music and sermon were inspiring, and opportunity was even given for attendees to be involved individually, if they chose, in artwork, thank-you cards and verbal expressions of thanks to others, among other things.

While all of that truly was thrilling for me to experience, I must say that what may have been the highlight of the entire service for me likely went unnoticed by others.

At some point early in the service, one of our pastors invited the congregation to take a few minutes to use their imaginations (what a concept). We were to close our eyes and imagine ourselves meeting with Christ at a local coffee/book shop and sharing a time of conversation with Him over a warm beverage. We were asked to imagine ourselves asking Christ, "Lord, what are you thankful for?" and then to imagine what His answer might be.

Literally almost before the pastor got the question out of his mouth, the answer came crashing into my mind's eye. It came with such clarity that it was almost as if my conscious self wasn't as aware of it as was my spirit. It brought tears to my eyes, which doesn't happen often these days. It was a very clear, very simple answer.

"Lord, what are you thankful for?" I asked, my eyes searching His. He looked deeply into me and without hesitation He responded with His one-word answer.

His answer?

"You."