When Martin Luther wrote his "Small Catechism" to help teach Christians the faith, he broke the six chief parts down into manageable pieces so that we could learn them easily, and retain the information about who God is and what He has done for us. In his explanation concerning the first article of the Apostles’ Creed, about God the Father being Almighty and the maker of all things, Luther writes:
“I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.”
We just celebrated our national day of thanksgiving. A day on which many of us were not able to gather as we normally would, a day which didn’t look like the ones that we have known in the past. But even a pandemic and its effects cannot change what God has done for us. He has given us all that we have in this life. Luther lays out a lot of what God gives us in the above explanation, but his list is by no means exhaustive. We live our whole lives completely dependent on God for all that we need to support this body and life, trusting that He will provide it.
And what is more, God not only takes care of daily needs, He also provides for our spiritual well-being through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus on our behalf. In a few short weeks we will once again celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas, and no doubt it will look different than it has in the past. But that doesn’t mean that the meaning has changed. In fact, in a simpler celebration maybe we will see the true meaning of Christmas, the celebration of God, coming into our world to save us from our sins.
Let us give thanks with grateful hearts, to God Almighty, for He has done marvelous things. He has provided for our spiritual salvation, and He daily and richly provides for our physical needs and wants as well. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” 1st Chronicles 16:34
