Life has been kind to me. Indeed, I think my life is great. What else can I really ask for? I will not be delving into the details here, for this is not really the time, nor forum, to share such matters.
Whether anyone else agree that my life is great is irrelevant. The important point is how I view my life: I am satisfy with my life and I feel great about what I have.
I am not saying here that my life is perfect. I have my problems, burdens and struggles. There are many. And of course, even though I am contented most of the time, I still have unsatisfied desires and wants (I guess I am still human after all). However, these imperfections, problems, and unsatisfied wants are really insignificant compared to what I have received and benefited from. God has given me so much already despite that I know I do not deserve any of it.
The one gift that must be mentioned in more detailed, however, is the gift of salvation. It is the best gift that one can hope to receive. It is a gift that is more valuable that anything else. As such, how can we not say "thank you".
The message of salvation is essentially that we, the sinners, are saved and forgiven through our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as ransom for our sin. We are reborn into a life where we are at one with God.
The skeptics, non-believers, as I once was, may say:
"who cares that we are saved"
"I don't believe in God, the Bible, and I don't believe in getting punish for my sin... indeed, I'm not even sinful... look at how good I'm as a person."
These are entirely convincing line of argument for the skeptics. It makes sense after all that if we are not sinful there is no need to be forgiven. This is particularly the case for those people who adopts a so called "scientific" worldview. These people tend to view religion as activities carried out by a bunch of fanatics. I know because I once belonged to this group of people.
With due respect, I submit that people who denounced religion purely on this so called scientific basis may not in fact be acting as objectively as they think they are acting. These people often have not even look at the evidence at all, let along considered the case on both side systematically. To me ruling something out before giving it full and unbiased consideration is not being objective.
I am of the view that if all (insofar as practicable) the facts and evidences are examined systematically, and hence taking a truly objective approach, the case put forth by the skeptics is at best not very convincing. At worst, their arguments have no substance at all.
With such a good life, I started asking myself: who should I thank? This begs the question: is there someone there to be thankful for? May be it is all just a big coincidence and so there is no need to thanks anyone.
I do not think that things that happened in my life is just a big coincidence. I find coincidence argument to be a harder case to believe in! If it is not a coincidence, then it follows that there must be someone who is responsible and it is this someone that I need to be thankful for.
It also occurs to me that if there is no one responsible, then there is no need to be thankful at all. To say that one is thankful is really meaningless by itself in the absence of a target or someone to be grateful against; "thankfulness" becomes just a mere word , an empty gesture, or part of a facade of humbleness. That is, there is no need to be thankful because things just happen; it is all just a big accident.
I soon came to the conclusion that I must, and in fact can only, thank God for my wonderful and blessed life. Why? The answer is that there can be no better choice.
Sure, on Earth, I can thank my parents. But it is only in relation to some of the things. There are just so many things that cannot be attributable to them alone. Granted that but for them my life would not be what it has been and still is, however, this does not mean that my parents are the source, or causative, of all the things that I felt I need to be thankful for.
Reflecting upon the matter a bit deeper it soon became apparent that it is only God who can be, and is, the ultimate giver of these gifts or blessing in my life. No one else can do it.
Some may say "you are just lucky". For example, that I was borne into the right family, at the right point in time, and that the circumstances in my life just work out right. Suggestion like this is really saying that it is all just a coincid e n c e . If it is, then it is a really big one indeed. In fact, it is so big that it is most improbable, if not impossible. Put this in another way, to believe that all my life experience are nothing more than coincidence require much more faith than to believe that it is a gift or blessing from God.
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