The first text I received this morning referred to the sunshine, blue sky and the sound of birds singing. It ended with “Let us give thanks!” What a nice way to begin the day, a reminder to give thanks. This is the third day in a row with pleasant temps and no rain. That’s my kind of weather. It brought to mind for me the refrain from the praise song: “Have You Thanked the Lord?” (ELW 829)
Have you thanked the Lord? Have you praised God’s name?
Don’t you know that no tomorrow is quite the same?
Have you thanked the Lord? Have you knelt in prayer,
and rejoiced that, rain or sunshine, our God is there?
Let us give thanks. — How to do that? It can be done in word or deed. I do devotions each morning and part of that is giving thanks. So, what else…?The answer came out of nowhere…I’ll give blood. It is something I try to do fairly regularly because I see it as a way to honor my Dad who was a huge blood donor through the years. What a way to give thanks; one pint of blood can save up to three lives. There’s more:
More than 4.5 million patients need blood transfusions each year in the U.S. and Canada. The amount of donated blood used each day in the U.S. and Canada is 43,000 pints. Someone needs blood every two seconds.
Only 37 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood – less than 10 percent do annually. About 1 in 7 people entering a hospital need blood.
It seems to me that those are all good reasons.
Let us pray:
Thank you gracious Lord for a body healthy enough share the resource of life-giving blood with others. Bless those who work as phlebotomists and volunteers, those who help with set up and deliveries and those who do the work to prepare the blood for lifesaving transfusions. In Jesus’ name.
The Rev. Ellen Meissgeier