Giving Thanks for All Things?… Personally Speaking

Ephesians 5:20 says we are “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Most are able to thank God for his grace, comfort, and sustaining power in a trial, but we don’t thank him for the problem—just finding him in it. But decades in a wheelchair have taught me not to segregate my Savior from the suffering he allows, as though a broken neck—or in your case, a broken ankle, home, or heart—merely “happens” and then God shows up after the fact to wrestle something good out of it.

Maybe at one time, this wheelchair felt like a horrible tragedy, but I’m grateful for my quadriplegia. It’s a bruising of a blessing, but still a blessing. It is a gift wrapped in black, but it’s still a gift. It’s the shadowy companion that walks with me daily, pulling and pushing me into the arms of my Savior.

©Lorelyn Medina

At the close of life, and in heaven, we shall see occasion to bless God for all his dealings with us. We shall see that we have not suffered one pang too much, or been required to perform one duty too severe. We shall see that all our afflictions, as well as our mercies were designed for our good, and were needful for us. Why then should we not bless God in the furnace as well as in the palace; on a bed of pain as well as on a bed of down; in want as well as when sitting down at the splendid banquet? God knows what is best for us; and the way in which he leads us, mysterious though it seems to be now, will yet be seen to have been full of goodness and mercy.

—Albert Barnes,

19th-century theologian

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