The Impact of Gratitude :: By Harriet Cook

After a recent hospital admission, I was able to leave a glowing review of this hospital and their staff.  Their response was swift, public, and thankful.

I copied my review and placed it as a post on my Facebook page, partly to let friends know what happened, but also so others in our community would be informed of how this hospital is a place I recommend. One of my friends commented on what a nice thing it was that I left a beautiful review and that I was “truly walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” I don’t know about that, but I sure try!

My response to this friend was that I had learned over the years how important it was to acknowledge people with gratitude. It’s something small that all of us can do, whether verbally, in writing, or with something tangible.

When our eldest daughter was 20 years old, pregnant, and being treated for cancer, I made up little inexpensive packages of a sample hand cream tube and three chocolate kisses, included a sweet little note, and handed these little baggies of gratitude to her nurses.  I recognized that nurses don’t always have nice patients!

Of the 12 bags given out, I received 11 hugs!  The one I didn’t receive a hug from was of Asian descent and might have had a cultural barrier to hugging someone, despite her welcoming the little gift.  One nurse cried.  I could hear another excitedly showing the little packet to other personnel in the nurse’s station who were not my daughter’s caregivers.

A year later, our youngest daughter, at 13 years old, had seen many doctors before being hospitalized for an increasingly vicious headache that never went away. After the great hospital and doctor experiences, I wrote to the director of the hospital.  Including pictures of her “before face”: pained and looking like an Emo kid from her suffering, then her “after face”: smiling and clear-eyed after successful treatment. I thanked him for all-around great care and for hiring a particular doctor because he was the kind of doctor people wanted.

The director actually called me, thanking me for sharing this with him because he was the staff member who always (and only) received the complaints!  My communication impacted him profoundly, and all it cost me was the time to write a letter and put a stamp on it.

Have you ever thanked the attendants at the airport or Walmart, who were cleaning the restroom as you walked in?  Oh, do it!  It’s fun to see the smile spread across their faces!

What if my little expression of gratitude here or there is the turning point in someone’s life to prevent a fed-up “I’m done; I need a new career!”?

What if my simple “thank you” opens a crack in their heart for the Holy Spirit to draw them to Jesus?

For many years, we lived in the Seattle area while my husband flew every other weekend to his job on the East Coast.  He built up air miles and hotel points while away from home two weeks at a time. This afforded us the pleasure of spending time together on Maui each year at very low cost.

Our Alaska flight attendants were always so kind and nice. One month prior to one of our vacations, a flight attendant from some airline was nearly sucked out of the plane through a broken window; it made National news. How frightening!  Yet fear is an opening to share Jesus!

In eight little cellophane bags, I placed three wrapped bulk chocolates from the local European store, and a small copy of Peggy Joyce Ruth’s book Psalm 91: God’s Umbrella of Protection (https://www.peggyjoyceruth.org/).  Each bag contained a small printed note of appreciation that we hand-signed.

Four baggies went in my checked bag for the flight home, and the other four went in my carry-on for the flight over.  Once the seat belt light went off, I shared these little bags personally with each attendant.

The acknowledgement that I knew that sometimes their jobs could be scary, and that not all passengers were good-natured, received nods of agreement.  I thanked them as I shared that my friend had written this book about Psalm 91 that they might find encouraging. I think I got hugs from each one!  One attendant had tears in her eyes. I made a point of telling each one that we flew Alaska every year, and we appreciated how they cared for us, but that this was not an attempt to get any special favors on the flight.  (Though they did try to show THEIR appreciation with food and drinks!)

A friend at church was a senior Alaska flight attendant, not on either of our flights that trip. The next Sunday, Lynn found me and excitedly related that she had been told about our little thank-you gifts by her fellow attendants!  (That filled me with delight!)  Tangible appreciation had made an immediate impact on those ladies.  Long-term impact will only be known in eternity.

As I see it, every instance related above comes from a heart that cultivates gratitude because that heart loves Jesus.  Though each expression was slightly different, each was a presentation of the love of Jesus to the recipients.

This week, someone on Facebook posted a beautifully written article about the alabaster jar that was broken, out of love, to anoint Jesus.  (Sadly, I cannot remember who wrote it and can’t find the post.)  That alabaster jar and its perfume were invaluable.  Her gratitude toward her Savior drove her to a much more expensive expression of love than my simple, but heartfelt, gifts to those whose kindness I wished to acknowledge.

Having never seen or heard anyone teach from this approach, I have often thought about this costly gift of strong perfume.  As Jesus was enduring the scourging, thorns, and being hung on the cross, He could still smell her perfume; her love!

In that era, they didn’t shower every day like we do. The natural oil in His hair, beard (what was left of it), and upper body would have had that perfume clinging to it.  And through all the agony, that fragrant gift of love would have been a reminder of why He was battling through such a horrific ordeal.

His human flesh would have reeked from everyday living without the modern sanitation of frequent bathing, not to mention from the biological shock of the excruciating pain.  The odor would have been compounded by both the dried and flowing blood, plus bodily fluids expelled during trauma.

Significantly, she had poured out her fragrant love on the part of His body nearest His olfactory senses.  There’s no way He would not have had that fragrance, at times, penetrate His sense of smell.  Yes, she unknowingly anointed His body beforehand for burial.  But the gift was surely meaningful to Him during His process of dying.

Our sense of smell is our strongest memory maker.  What was one of Jesus’ most recent memories?  Though Jesus was sacrificing His life for all to repent and receive His love, her aromatic act of love was unforgettably poured out upon Him during a shared meal surrounded by those who loved Him most.

Did she know her gift would have an impact beyond the room in which she had honored Jesus?  How could she?  None of the disciples could have imagined the depths of horror that awaited their Savior.

To me, this illustrates how we cannot know how our gifts of grateful appreciation are impactful in dimensions beyond our earthly vision.

Purposeful expressions of gratitude, simple or extravagant, can be a powerful tool God uses to refresh a weary soul or call an unbeliever to Himself!  The hour is late. Could our “thank you” be the last drop of oil the Lord massages into an unbeliever’s heart to soften it unto salvation?

We cultivate gratefulness when we thank God daily for the large and the small blessings in our lives. Practicing the characteristic of gratefulness then grows to overflow upon others.  And, somehow, we end up experiencing more joy ourselves!

Who is it that the Holy Spirit might place on your heart, right now, that could use the encouragement of your gratitude?  A card, text, call, or something tangible that says, “You matter; thank you for <whatever it is>!”

Act on Holy Spirit nudges like this, for you are investing in eternity!  Someday you will learn, beyond what you can see at present, what the Lord accomplished in the hearts of those you, in the name of the Lord, blessed with humble appreciation.

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Harriet Cook has been walking with Jesus for 66 years and is the author of What Can I Do to Help Lazarus? Reaching Out with Knowledge and Compassion to Survivors of Domestic Abuse in our Congregations, available on Amazon.

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