more than thanks

2013

We as a society debase words, we contort them into a new meaning, we add overtones of heavy sarcasm into words that were intended to float in grace.

Thanks is one of those words, one of my sons uses the word to mean its exact opposite, not thanks. We throw this word away on the end of sentences, we intone a not thanks into our thanks.

At the other extreme we add to it, as if the word itself was not enough. If we used the word appropriately there would be no need to add or take away from it, it would stand on its own. There would be no need for “more than thanks” for “thanks a million”, I mean extrapolate that out, you are thanking someone a million times over for what, passing the sugar. Do we ever say “thanks a mill” to the One who is worthy of being thanked a million times, no.

I was recently in a very awkward situation, someone was calling me gentle, and I was saying thanks. In my head there were two strands of conversation that were never going to be spoken:

Mind: gentle me – I’m as rough as sandpaper. Gentle, no mate, you’ve got the wrong body

Heart and Mind: thank You Lord that the fruits of the Spirit are seen in me

Because I live in the freedom of Christ and am full of thanks for that, I give thanks to the Lord, often, many times a day. Not in a talisman kind of way, the way people cross themselves passing a graveyard but in a way that does not trivialise the word or debase the word or contort the word.

The word thanks, is floating in grace, is immersed in mercy and brimmed full with the Love that the Lord gives us. We cannot fully comprehend all that we are full of thanks for, we only can know a glimpse, a glimmer, a hint, we just know that when we do know, that small little throwaway word will have a new depth, a new resonance, thank You Lord.