BY REV. DR. VAHAN H. TOOTIKIAN
Sometime ago, I was talking with a friend who was honest enough to admit that there have been times when it was difficult for him to pray as he knows he ought. He also confessed that it had crossed his mind that since God already knows what he needs before he asks; it might simplify matters if God would just do the providing without having to be asked. In responding to my friend, I reminded him how often we take our blessings for granted. If God provided all our blessings without our ever having to ask for them, we would soon take God for granted or, worse yet, we would be likely to ignore God altogether. Many of us who have never suffered from asthma or emphysema take breathing for granted. For many of us breathing is automatic. Similarly, many of us take speaking, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling for granted because these are things that most people are able to do without giving very much thought to them. In this country, too many of us take eating, driving, talking on the telephone, watching television, being warm in bed at night, and such comforts as these for granted. Many other people in our world cannot take these things for granted because they are luxuries to them and not all of these people live in foreign countries. There are thousands and thousands of hungry, homeless, underprivileged people in our homeland Armenia. There are hungry and homeless people right here in the United States of America; indeed, some live in our own neighborhoods. Then there are those of us who take our relatives for granted. Quite often, orphans have a greater appreciation for parents than children who live with both parents. Quite often, widows have a greater appreciation for their husbands, once they are dead, than when they were alive. The same can be said for widowers and other relatives who have survived the death of a loved one. Our blessings are so numerous and vital to our existence that we cannot afford to take any of them for granted. On Thanksgiving Day, or for that matter, every day, it would be a blessing to us if we were to spend some time in prayer thanking God for many of the things we may have taken for granted. If we were to start listing then by name, it would take us a long time. Also, it is important that we take a little time to express our appreciation to those we love and to those who love us for the blessings of life that we share. At their funeral is the wrong time to express our love and gratitude to those who mean so much to us. Let’s do it while they can still hear it and know that we mean it. It is really a good thing that we observe Thanksgiving at least once a year. Otherwise, we might forget how blessed we are every day of our lives.