November, to me, is the start of the busiest time of the year. It marks the beginning of the holiday season. We look forward to our Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions and all the things that come with them. 

I have heard so many people, including myself, talk about how quickly this year is going by. I think we can get so focused on our preparations that we forget to enjoy the moment. We are so consumed with busy schedules and planning our events that we end up feeling stressed and overwhelmed. 

The busier we are, the easier it is to forget every day as a gift from God. We can oftentimes be so caught up in the future that we forget to be thankful for the present. 

These are special times that we spend with family, but we need to be reminded to live in thankfulness and gratitude to the Lord and what He has done for us. In the busyness we can lose sight of the Lord’s goodness, faithfulness, and all He had done for us.

In Luke 17:11-18, it says that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and was confronted by ten lepers. They asked Jesus to have pity on them. He tells them to go show themselves to the priests. He didn’t lay hands on them, just told them to go. This took faith because in those times you would go to the priest for him to declare you are healed. The thing is there was no cure for leprosy. They had to respond in faith and as they did they were healed on the way. Jesus healed all ten men but when it was all said and done only one of the men returned to thank him. He praised and glorified God for his healing. This man was a Samaritan and hated by the Jews and still came back and fell at Jesus’ feet to thank Him. Jesus asks him where the other nine men were and recognizes that only the foreigner had returned to give praise to God. Jesus tells him to rise and go because your faith has made you well. This man received more than a physical healing, he received eternal salvation.

I wonder too, why didn’t the other nine men come back to give thanks to Jesus. Were they too busy with religious practices that they didn’t see the importance of what Jesus had done? I also wonder if I have ever been one of the nine? Have I asked God to have pity on me, help me, or heal me or my loved ones and then go on with my busy life and forget to thank Him and give Him the glory? 

The answer is yes. The good thing is God gives us mercy and grace everyday. I want to live my life with a grateful heart that remembers who God is and what He has done. I don’t want to focus on the busyness of life or the holidays without Him. This holiday season I pray we can all slow down a bit and give God the glory and praise He deserves. Just as Jesus recognized the gratitude of the Samaritan leper who returned to give thanks, He will recognize us when we take time to thank Him in our busy lives.

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103: 2-5