What Would Jesus Thank God For?

A night or two before Thanksgiving, the Bible reading plan we follow with our kids at dinner put us in Luke 10. The heading above verse 21 said, “Jesus' Prayer of Thanksgiving.” Wow. What could be better? I thought to myself, "I can learn what Jesus was thankful for and be thankful for the same things on Thanksgiving."

Here’s the prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike….” Hmmm. I wasn’t sure I totally understood this because Jesus seemed to be thanking God for hiding truth as well as revealing it, but I decided I could heartily join in the second part, remembering to thank God on Thanksgiving for revealing His truths to me. A couple verses later, in Luke 10:23-24, Jesus says to the disciples, “How privileged you are to see what you have seen. I tell you the truth, many prophets and kings have longed to see and hear what you have seen and heard, but they could not.” I thought about this. Abraham, David, Elijah, Moses—they lived their lives never seeing what we have seen—the power and love of God revealed in what Jesus said and did. And in the context in Luke, seventy-two followers of Jesus had just been spreading the word about Him and witnessing His power worked through them. These are privileges I don’t recognize on a daily basis, much less remember to thank God for. I tried to remember these yesterday during all the eating and other distractions.

But something was drawing me back to the passage this morning—maybe the thought that I should write about Jesus’ Thanksgiving prayer here. But how could I write about it with that kind of seemingly weird stuff at the beginning? I was sitting at my desk and I laid my head down on my open Bible and prayed in frustration, “God I don’t really get this. And, in fact, lately it seems like there have been a couple things in your Word I can’t understand fully. I feel like my mind can only get so far and then a dullness sets in.”

It was almost as if the words—on which my forehead was resting--streamed off the page and into my brain. The truth is hidden from those who think themselves clever. It is revealed to the childlike. You goofball.

So now here is my post-Thanksgiving prayer: “Lord, thank you for what you have revealed to me so far. But don’t let me think myself too clever. Give me a childlike mind—ready to absorb more, ready to ask persistent questions, knowing that I don’t know much yet at all—so that more can be revealed to me.”

…Jesus said, "Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" Mark 9:23-24.