We have woken up to a new day. Many people whom we saw yesterday or spoke to died before today could dawn. But we were fortunate to have had a carefree night and a good night’s sleep. We are so lucky to be born in our families, to parents we did not choose and to have such wonderful brothers and sisters who love us so much. We were born normal children without any deformities. All our senses are intact. We have a reasonably good intellect and memory. We live in fairly comfortable homes. We have all our basic needs satisfied. We have more comforts and luxuries than we could wish for and we enjoy reasonably good health.
We are blessed to have good friends. We know they will be there for us when we need them. We received a good education in good schools and colleges. For this our parents were responsible to a great extent. They sacrificed a great deal. We could get ourselves suitably trained for good jobs.
We have many talents for which many opportunities came our way so that we could make use of them. So many good things have happened in our lives. Have we ever stopped to think how these things have happened maybe even when we may never have deserved them at all? We tend to take everything for granted.
But when we see poor, helpless children abandoned in ashrams, sick children in hospitals, minor children toiling under difficult conditions, we begin to realize that God has been extremely good to us. When we see weak, disabled persons, blind, deaf and dumb persons or persons with crippling handicaps, we stop to ponder over God’s goodness to us.
What if we had died in our sleep? So many people die each day from heart attacks and other fatal illnesses, accidents and mishaps. We have been spared from all these things. Do we remember to thank the good Lord for protecting us in so many ways?
Have we spared a thought for all the love shown to us by our parents, our brothers and sisters? If we reflect for a few silent moments on this, we will realize that most of the time we do not remember to thank God for watching over us all the time. We take things for granted. But we frantically turn to Him when things do not happen the way we would like them to. We also take our parents, brothers, sisters and friends for granted.
Do we thank shopkeepers, postmen, conductors, waiters etc. when they work for us with a smile? We think that we are paying them for their work and we do not owe them a word of thanks. Words of thanks and a smile of gratitude can bring a twinkle in the eye of the person who has worked so lovingly for you. It brings to my mind a scene from the well-loved movie ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ where Sanjay Dutt who plays Munnabhai hugs the sweeper for keeping the hospital premises clean. The sweeper’s heart melts and he is taken aback that Munnabhai knows him by name.
Let us not hesitate to thank those who deserve a word of thanks and reciprocate the love and affection we receive. We can be sure that a grateful heart is a happy heart.
