A school reunion lunch in February brought ten of us together from the 1954 prep class. Barely resembling our school photos, we shared some strong memories and fine-tuned other memories, all in a sense of gratitude.
Our gratitude peaked when we phoned our teacher Miss Tozer, who launched our learning.
Passing the phone around, we took turns to thank her because she could not come, being in full-time care and less mobile.
But despite having recently turned ninety-six, she was fully alert to all that we shared with her!
Her teaching touched and shaped many people, and I unexpectedly met one of them last year.
We quickly discovered common ground, for her career as a specialized infant teacher had been triggered by the positive atmosphere of Miss Tozer’s prep class during a three-week student-teaching round.
And that three-week round was with our 1954 prep class!
Whether life shapes or shrinks our goals, it’s important to thank those who regularly or unexpectedly help us along the way, and it is well worth the effort of contacting anyone we may have overlooked.
We may never suspect how encouraging this could be, for if they helped us a long time ago, our gratitude may be perfectly timed to lift them through a downer that no-one else has noticed.
Expressing gratitude affirms our need for each other, for life is too special for us to try all alone. It also keeps our egos in line, so we may stay open to each other.
Being grateful also keeps us open to God, and receptive to sliding door moments – those sudden opportunities that we find to be a perfect fit for where we are and where we may go.
Sliding door moments supposedly come from parallel universes, but I’ve experienced too many to reduce them to flukey mysticism.
I see them instead as God personally answering prayer, to unwrap his preparation and invite us to tap into his limitless resources.
Yet sliding doors that open sudden or sustained heartaches make gratitude hard to find.
This is when the psalms in the bible reveal a key to gratitude. Psalms, or prayers, have emotional roots that range from ecstasy to despair, and they reveal hope gradually overcoming any pain gushing from the most negative beginnings, so they close with gratitude to God who arranges what we may never see coming; who’s never surprised; but who’s always loving.
Noel Mitaxa
On behalf of a church near you,
Inviting you to explore God’s love.
