I think that traditional Thanksgiving

calls for too little thinking as we think only of the big ticket items

for which to be thankful. The big items include: our salvation, family,

friends, living in a free (and equally divided) country, health, and whatever

your big ticket item may be.

The challenge of Thanksgiving,

however, and for me, is to search out those little things for which we

should be profoundly thankful on a daily basis but for the most part are

simply taken for granted. Little things!

Did you ever think how thankful

tens of millions of the world's population would be if they could

go into their kitchens or bathrooms (if they had such), turn on the faucet

and fill a glass full of drinking water and guzzle it down along with

as many re-fills they wanted? Most of the world's population walk

some distance to get their water and then it's not safe to drink.

Did you ever think about that? No! Most of us take it for granted, never

once being grateful for water safe to drink right out of the tap. Well,

today you can start thinking and thanking.

While we are on the subject

of water, did you ever think about the matter of hot running water? At

any moment, you've got hot water - anytime of the day or night.

No one has to build a fire, fill a pot, and watch the pot until it boils.

No! Right there in your home you have a fire constantly keeping water

hot, ready for use. You can use it to melt the butter off the knife, wash

your sheets (keeping those pesky microscopic vermin), take a comfortable

shower (just remember the respiratory arrest you experienced with that

last cold shower), and throw on the frosted windshield in the winter.

Did you ever think about all that and let that motivate you to a fit of

gratitude? Probably, not. Now, you can think about it.

Did you ever think about the

blessing of garbage removal? With little cost compared to the task it

accomplishes, some men stop my by house every week and pick up my smelly,

rotting, multi-faceted garbage. Every week! Doesn't fail! Take a

walk down the streets and roads of third world countries and you'll

start thinking about how thankful you should be about this matter of garbage

removal. Rather than having a landfill, their whole land is strewn with

garbage from border to border. So when you go pull your empty 100-gallon

garbage can on wheels