I went to a car show with my eight year old boy Derek yesterday. We had a lot of fun walking around and picking out favorite cars together. It always amazes me to see the obvious care and time that some people have put into their classic cars. Being an air-cooled VW aficionado, I was excited to see an old camper bus on display. The back window had several stickers in it, but one caught my eye. It looked like an old Grateful Dead sticker, but instead it read "Grateful to not be dead." I can relate!
I've been having a thought run around my head lately. It has to do with the classic Bible story about the 10 lepers. It's the one that we usually here in church when there is a lesson or talk that has to do with gratitude. In the story, Jesus heals ten people of their leprosy. Excited, they all run off to tell their friends and families the good news. Only one returns to express gratitude to the Savior. The moral of the story is that only this one showed gratitude for the miracle that occurred in his life.
But now that I think about it, I imagine that all ten lepers went home and felt gratitude towards the Savior for healing them. I imagine that every day for the rest of their lives they thought about what had been done for them. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that all of the lepers probably felt gratitude in their hearts. I think that the real difference is that the one leper stopped to actually express that gratitude. He did something with it by going back to the Saviour and thanking him. He showed his gratitude by his actions.
It's really easy for me to identify with those nine lepers. The rawness of the ordeal we've been through has started to fade. And yet, not a day goes by that I don't think about it. And we are still feeling the aftershocks of it in our family. I am grateful in my heart for the miracle that I'm still here. But I want to show that gratitude through my actions. I hope that I can.
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