The Beauty of Gratitude

About two weeks ago, I started my day a little on the grumpy side. Now this is very unusual for me (insert my husband’s eye roll!), but I must admit I was having a bit of a pity party for myself. Again, very unusual!! (Ha! Ha!) I had decided to pick up an extra shift at work a few days prior, not realizing my week was going to go sideways so to speak, so I was regretting the decision to add that shift to what had become an unexpectedly hectic week. And to make matters worse there was road construction on my daily route that was causing a thirty minute delay to my typical commute. Since I had to be at work by 7:30 a.m., I had to leave my house by 6:00 a.m. to make sure I arrived on time. So, I loaded myself in my pickup and headed out in the dark feeling frustrated and annoyed with all of it. 

I have a rather long and very “rural” commute on dirt roads to get to town, so when I say it was dark I mean it was DARK! No other vehicles on the road, no other lights…just me, my headlights, and my pity party. As I drove, I was getting pretty carried away, going through a list repeatedly in my mind of all the things that were frustrating me which was causing my mood to darken even further. I was literally making myself more miserable as I reviewed my reasons for feeling annoyed and justifying, in my mind, why I should feel this way. It sounds absurd as I’m writing this, but I do this more frequently than I’d like to admit. It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill, and it just keeps getting bigger and more out of control as it picks up more snow and speed as it goes.

As I was driving, the sky was just beginning to lighten enough so I could start to discern the hills from the skyline–they were the darkest black, and the sky was a very deep midnight blue, just the barest of color difference between them. Then, as I watched, I noticed an amazingly dark magenta red line form along the ridgetop, just a sliver, that immediately blended up into a rich raspberry pink merging into the deep turquoise blue of the sky as the sunlight began to reflect up from behind the hills. It was like the colors were being blurred up into the sky with a brush as I watched! This color transition remained for about ten seconds before the colors faded out as the sun rose higher, still beautiful but not the same intense color contrast. It was ten seconds of the most glorious display of rich colors I have ever witnessed in a sunrise since moving here twenty-five years ago! 

As I sat there in my pickup marveling over what I had just seen, I was in awe that God had created such magnificent beauty that day... and that He allowed me to see it at that moment. If I had been ten seconds earlier or ten seconds later in my commute, I would have missed it. I couldn’t help but dwell on how fortunate I was to be at that exact point on the road at that exact time to see those colors in full display for just the briefest of moments. And I knew God had orchestrated it perfectly so I could be blessed by it, despite my current lousy attitude.

You know what else happened as I was pondering all of this? My perspective immediately shifted. All the grumbling, negative thoughts that had been replaying in my mind just faded out with the view of those colors breaking over the hills because it dawned on me (yes, pun intended!) that I had so much to be thankful for. My eyes shifted from myself, in my own little pity-party, to the greatness of the Lord and His amazing creation! The new movie reel of thoughts that began playing in my mind progressed from how awesome God is to create such unbelievable beauty in a sunrise, to how blessed I was to have been on the road at that exact time to see it, to what an awesome Father we have!

This is the beauty of how gratitude can transform our minds as we dwell in a world that tells us to feel sorry for ourselves.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2a, NIV

We can choose to find something to be grateful for even in our darkest thought-moments. It can be something as simple as opening our eyes to see the beauty and wonder of God’s creation all around us, or reflecting on memories of times when we felt joy in the past, or anticipating something good that is coming up. And that shift into gratitude can change our perspective from seeing only ourselves and our current troubles to focusing on the Lord and what He has done for us. 

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2, NIV

Fixing our eyes on Jesus brings us to the full realization of God’s love for us–that He sent His son to pay such a big price on the cross for our sins, so we can be restored and brought back into relationship with the Lord. There is a song by Cory Asbury called “Reckless Love” that speaks of our Father’s love for us so perfectly, in my opinion. Part of the chorus says:

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights til’ I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, you give yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.

It just wrecks me every time I hear it. It’s hard to comprehend that kind of love. His love is so far beyond anything else we can experience in this world.

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:9, NIV

When we shift our focus from all of our perceived troubles and focus on this simple truth, it will humble us immediately and make us realize no matter what we are going through what He did for us is enough. He is enough. 

We are blessed to have a Father who doesn’t hold our behavior against us (oh, thank you, Lord!), but blesses us instead, correcting us and encouraging us, pursuing us and drawing us close, and showing us the most amazingly beautiful display of color in a sunrise when we least deserve it.

And because of Him, I am grateful.