Thanks For The Fleas?
by Helen Dowd

I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice evermore…Pray without ceasing… In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

You woke up this morning to the incessant drizzle of rain, which had been going on for a week. You take your usual tour through the house, only to discover that the roof is leaking in five places. Can you give thanks?

You head out the door to go to work, but when you go to start the car you discover the battery is dead. Can you give thanks?

It is one of those days that you wish you could just crawl back into bed and pull the covers over your head, shutting out all the problems that face you. Can you give thanks?

Can you give thanks? No? Not usually. Yet Paul exhorts us to give thanks in everything. He does not give it out as a suggestion. It is a command!

Well now, could you give thanks for fleas? For fleas? That's a silly question. Can you think of many things worse than fleas? Yet, read this. I read it in a devotional taken from OUR DAILY BREAD. Even FLEAS were a cause for which to give thanks.

THANKS FOR THE FLEAS


Corrie ten Boom was an inspiration and challenge to thousands of people after World War II. Hearts were stirred and lives changed as she told with moving simplicity about God's sufficiency to meet her needs, even as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp.

Not only was the camp filthy, but there were fleas everywhere. Corrie's older sister Betsie, who was imprisoned with her, insisted that I Thessalonians 5:18 was God's will for them: "In every thing give thanks." But giving thanks in a flea-infested place seemed unrealistic to Corrie—until she realized why the guards didn't come into their barracks to make them stop praying and singing hymns. They wanted to avoid the fleas! So, the prisoners were free to worship and study the Bible. The fleas, yes, even the fleas were agents of grace, and something to be thankful for.

What FLEAS do we have in our lives? What little annoyances hang around waiting to "bite" us? Small messes our children make? The ringing of the telephone when we are in the middle of making bread? Someone at our door trying to sell something we don't want? The ear splitting barking of the dog? The cat rubbing against our legs, begging to be fed?

You name your own FLEAS. But remember to give thanks even for the FLEAS.

So, shall we start the day all over again and give thanks for the fleas in our lives?

© Helen Dowd






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