Thankfulness

I asked Marc to share photos and his thoughts for this day and this season of giving thanks. His beautiful photography, joined with his eloquent thoughts describing them, have been gifts to me and to Profound Living readers this year. Here are three of his images and his thoughts for this Thanksgiving Day.

Thankfulness
by
Marc Christensen

Is it that happy people are thankful or that thankful people are happy? I read this recently and it gave me pause to think about this juxtaposition. For me, it’s the latter. It escapes me as to how one could actually be happy if they were not first thankful. The opposite of thankful would be unthankful or ungrateful, perhaps. Ungratefulness would lead to despair in that it would seem nothing in life is worthwhile or there’s nothing to be grateful or thankful for. If the bar for being thankful is set on the obtaining the best in material things, then indeed, there might be little to be thankful for. If the lens for being thankful focuses on God’s gifts to us - family, friends, adequate food and shelter and and the gorgeous natural world he made for us - then I don’t know where to start in counting the things I’m thankful for. The first picture, I took in a vacant field near my home. The second in my own backyard flower bed and the third on an early morning walk near the state capitol in Santa Fe when I was working there: one needn’t be very far from home to find a cornucopia of beauty for which to be thankful.