Thank You for Necks (Friday Devotional)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

- James 1:17

This past Sunday night, my whole family came down with a serious case of the giggles. With 2-year-old Isaac as the instigator, we were all on the verge of tears from laughing so much and so hard. Everything was funny, and nothing could get us to stop.

It progressed into our evening prayers, even as Lindsey and I tried, unsuccessfully, to get everybody to start winding down. Isaac started his prayer normally—thank you for this day, thank you for Mommy and Daddy, thank you for Bubba and Sissy—but then his eye twinkled and he looked around the room and delivered the punchline: thank you for necks.

Why necks? Maybe he had just learned that humans and giraffes have the same number of cervical vertebrae in their necks (seven). Maybe he’d been clued in to the average weight of the human head, 12 pounds, and was grateful for the way the human neck supports that burden. Most likely, that was just where his eyes landed at that moment. Whatever the case, that was his prayer: thank you for necks.

It’s a silly prayer, obviously, the product of an overtired, giggly little boy. That being said, I wonder if we can’t learn something from it. After all, the Bible consistently encourages us to give thanks to God for all his gifts, the big and the small. Thank him for eternal salvation, but also for the grilled cheese sandwich you made for lunch. Thank him when the tornado misses your house, but also when you stop suddenly at a red light without getting rear-ended. Thank him when your cancer goes into remission, but also when your missing dog finds her way back home.

Gratitude need not be reserved solely for the most obvious blessings, and indeed, it is the sign of a joyful and gracious heart when you remember to say thank you for the little things too. So thank him today for those things you normally take for granted: for running water and a roof over your head, for food in the fridge and clothes in the closet, for the very air you breathe.

And why not, thank him for necks.