Dear Friends,
What are the magic words? I am sure you haven’t
forgotten but just in case you have then pay
a visit to the reception class at our village
school.
Some of you may not know but the leaders
of our three local churches once a week take
part in the worship at our schools. Of course,
we are not necessarily trained teachers therefore
our efforts to communicate with 4 -11 year
olds can at times be a bit hit and miss.
We can do a great deal of preparation and
spend the best part of ten minutes trying
to get our message over and make it mean something
to the children. However, at the end of the
act of worship one of the teachers will often
then sum up what we have said and make it
relevant to the children in about 10 seconds
flat. All I can say is “Thank God for teachers!”
Quite recently Kathryn, our URC minister,
led a very good act of worship and the theme
was centred around the importance of the two
words: “Thank you”. And sure enough the assembly
had just finished and Mrs Foy, the reception
teacher, summed it all by talking to the infants
about the magic words “Thank you”
All sorts of possibilities take place – all
kinds of doors open when those words are used.
I wonder if we do use them enough. Mrs Foy
did say that when she is being served at a
shop there are times when she is tempted to
say to the shop assistant “Now my dear, what
are the magic words?”
It really doesn’t hurt to give a smile and
say thank you even when people do things which
are expected of them, it must surely brighten
up their day and make everything worthwhile.
The occasional “thank you” does stop us from
taking people for granted (I really must remember
that more often when I have just had a good
meal). Thank you also gives encouragement.
You know, we are all quite good at criticising;
in fact some of us have got that down to a
fine art but the odd thank you works wonders.
They really are magic words.
If they are magic words in our dealings with
people then they are fundamental in our relationship
with God. If we are honest most of us find
prayer quite difficult. When life is in a
mess and we really have a need for God then
it is somewhat easier to pray - but God is
not there just to help us sort out troubles.
He also needs to know he is appreciated and
so our starting point should always be, “thank
you”.
The truth is that our faith in God will amount
to nothing unless we have learnt to say thank
you. And we can only say thank you when we
appreciate what he has done for us. The basis
of the Christian faith stands on the fact
that God sent his Son Jesus Christ into this
world to die for our sins so that we could
have a loving relationship with our Creator
for this life and into eternity. If that is
not grounds for saying thank you then I don’t
know what is. Yet the sad truth is that many,
many people have not cottoned on to or possibly,
it is more accurate to say that, they have
never been told that simple basis of Christianity.
For them faith has no substance because they
cannot say thank you. It is worth reminding
ourselves that in more recent years the old
familiar name of Holy Communion has been replaced
by the word Eucharist. It is exactly the same
service but the word Eucharist comes from
the Greek “Thanksgiving”. There is no better
way of expressing our thanks to God than through
the Sacrament, which Christ gave us in order
that we should continually remember him and
why he came into our world.
May God bless you all and I thank God for
you.
Trevor Farmiloe
