Because God is the author of the entire creation, it is difficult to know where to start in offering thanksgiving for the many discrete blessings he has given us. I could run through any number of things for which I am grateful, but probably the greatest is my daughter, Theresa, who just turned eleven at the beginning of the month. My wife’s pregnancy had been a difficult one, and Theresa was born 14 weeks early, that is, at just slightly under six months along. She was frighteningly small at 2 lbs and spent just over 10 weeks at two Hamilton, Ontario, hospitals. The first blessing was that she was born at a hospital with a level three NICU capable of caring for one so vulnerable.

Throughout this ordeal we were surrounded by the prayers of hundreds of people from around the world, who upheld us through this difficult experience. On one occasion one of the nurses at the first hospital, who happened to be an aunt to four of my former students, took the initiative to pray with us in the room adjacent the NICU, which was greatly comforting to us. Theresa’s story can be read here.

Fast forward seven years, when I was suffering one of my occasional bouts with depression. I was sitting at the dining room table about to read Theresa a story, and I was feeling pretty bad. Unexpectedly, Theresa spoke up and said: “Daddy, God will give you healing in the name of Jesus Christ.” I was, of course, stunned to hear this from a lips of a child who had just completed grade one. But I did improve steadily after that, and I can scarcely imagine God communicating words of assurance in a more startling way other than by choirs of angels.

Indeed I have much to be thankful for. Δόξα τω Θεω!