(art: Job and His Wife Restored to Prosperity, William Blake, 1826)
The story of Job is one of the greatest stories of thanksgiving for all time. It is also special because it is a story shared between all of the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The Book of Job is a relatively short read. It is the story of Job, a householder faithful to God, suffering loss after loss of everything he knows as his family and prosperity. Throughout it all, Job never falters in having gratitude toward God, repeatedly exclaiming “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job never waivers in his gratitude and even prays to God for the forgiveness of his friends who say that he is foolish for staying steadfast in his faith. In the end, God restores Job’s family and prosperity.
You can make the story of Job into a Thanksgiving Day meditation for yourself. Start with a good prayer, perhaps the Lord’s Prayer especially with its timely request for today, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Then settle in, look around you, and imagine everything that is dear to you, important to you, is taken away — fading and then gone. Take a moment to look around in this imagined situation seeing nothingness. Feel the absence, the loss, the grief, and the desolation. Have a real experience of that in your mind and your heart. Then, imagine that God steps in and restores everything in a flash. Take a moment to feel the relief, the joy, the vitality and alive-ness of everything that is dear, important, and even taken for granted, being put back into your life. You now have two experiences to draw upon: one of complete loss, and one of complete prosperity. Because of the experience of complete loss, even as imaginary as it was, you have a deep sense of gratitude when you look around and see that the sun rose and everything in your life was put back as soon as you woke up and opened your eyes today. Have a “Job restored” day today.
The LORD also restored the prosperity of Job, after he had prayed for his friends; the LORD even gave to Job twice* as much as he had before. Then all his brothers and sisters came to him, and all his former acquaintances, and they dined with him in his house…Thus the LORD blessed the later days of Job more than his earlier ones.
If you are a person who has recently experienced great loss and grief like Job, you may have started today as just one more day of that grief, but you can give the meditation a try and see if you can find yourself a “Well, at least I still have…” experience that you can find some gratitude in. Your great loss and grief might actually make you better than most people at finding gratitude in just a few things or the small things. You are a really important person because of that. Thank you for being you, the world needs you very much.
Please share these words with someone who needs them today.
This text is an original work of its author Tom Delaney and was entirely composed without the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
If your parish or faith community is seeking a deeper experience of forgiveness, healing, mercy, and spiritual renewal, Live and Forgive is here to help. To begin the conversation, email Live and Forgive presenter and facilitator Tom Delaney at tom@liveandforgive.com — he will be glad to connect with you for a conversation. Please type in your email and click “Subscribe” below to stay connected and get Live and Forgive articles delivered to you.
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