Thankful Hearts … (November 2025 Update)
We watch a lot of old movies in our family. Since we are studying about the time just before World War I in homeschool, we watched one of my all-time favorites: Fiddler on the Roof. This movie is actually based on a series of stories called “Tevye the Milkman” by a Jewish Ukrainian author, Sholem Aleichem. We love all the songs, especially “L’Chaim” (“To Life”). One verse in the song sums up the biblical attitude that we should have toward thankfulness. Tevye sings: “God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor; How much more can we be joyful, when there’s really something to be joyful for.”
As believers, we have so much to be thankful for – even when things are not going well. In his book, The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil, Thomas Watson says,
Praise and thanksgiving is the work of heaven and he [the godly man] begins that work here which he will always be doing in heaven. The Jews have a saying – the world subsists by three things: the law, the worship of God and thankfulness. As if where thankfulness was missing, one of the pillars of the world had been taken away and it was ready to fall.
The psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalm 107:2) and “it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” (Psalm 92:1). As we approach this Thanksgiving holiday, it is good for us to think biblically about our thankfulness. Here are some thoughts from Thomas Watson about thankfulness that may help us to have truly thankful hearts, “even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.”
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