I love my wife. She’s awesome. But I don’t love here for what she has done. Don’t get me wrong, she’s done some wonderful things for me, but if I loved her only for what she’s done, where would our love be if she could no longer do those things? So sure, I’m grateful for what she’s done, but I’m most grateful for who she is.
Yet, at this time of year, when we’re especially thinking about being grateful to God, how often our focus is almost exclusively on what God has done, instead of on who He is!
Again, don’t get me wrong; what He has done for me—for all of us—is more than I can ever fathom! But didn’t He do it so that our relationship with Him could be reclaimed, restored and renewed? When we thank Him only for what He has done, don’t we buy in to a dysfunctional “God-is-my-genie-in-a-bottle-who-does-stuff-for-me” relationship?
My wife would be ultimately very unhappy if all I loved about her was what she had done for me. Indeed it would be a ruinously unhealthy relationship for us both, in the end.
Instead we, though grateful for what we do for one another, are ultimately most grateful for who we are to each other.
So, what about our God. Are we dysfunctionally only thankful for what God has done (significant as it is), or are we most grateful for who He is?