Praise
From our first to last breath, we are granted infinite grace and goodness. Everything competes to serve people. There is a constant race between creatures to be a part of a human being, the most precious work of God. Everything shows a strong interest in the human being…
So, how should this human being, who is the most precious work of God, respond to such grace and blessings?
***
Let’s start with two questions:
Why do people treat others? Who do we serve most? To our loved ones, of course! The more we love, the sincerer we serve.
So, isn’t there a reward for a small treat among us? Our conscience will tell us that we should thank for a gift given to us even with a smile.
Well, how will we respond to all of the gifts, thousands of treats and eternal blessings from God? What attitude will we take?
Maybe we should start by reviewing what has been offered to us:
Blue sky, shining sun hanged in that beautiful sky!
That marvelous sea and that gull flying in the vast blue?
Is the blessing eye watching the sea and seagull? The gift spirit that makes deep sense of what we see?
Colorful Roses? A butterfly on those roses?
Fruit-filled trees, letters of His eternal mercy?
That red strawberry that comes out of the earth but not tasting or smelling like it? That pale orange?
That even an apple has so many kinds?
And even more, the taste, smell, and color of everything that appeals to our senses so much? Being so great of all?
***
We love those who serve us, who give us gifts. Moreover, this is a sincere love; a love from our hearts. He who sends us all those blessings must be loved.
There is a greater, more satisfying spiritual flavor than the taste of every blessing we eat and drink. Remembering that blessing, that gift to us, and our friend, God, gives us a greater flavor than that flavor.
In this world where only, material tastes are taken into consideration, there are very few inviting us to spiritual tastes. We get much more than the flavor of the coffee we drink from remembering who bestowed it to us. We find much more than the taste of the cold water we drink on a hot summer day from remembering God, who sent it to us.
Either we live connecting with the creator of this World and realizing that every blessing is actually a gift sent to us, either we will live in peace full of love or we will be unhappy believing that so many wonderful blessings and gifts come to us by chance.
We must learn to make a connection between the blessings and their creator who sent them to us. We have to try for this. Master Nursi explains this wonderful lesson in the “Treatise on Thanks” in full detail and teaches us to be lifelong truly happy.
By saying “The strangest, richest, most wonderful, most agreeable, most comprehensive, and most marvelous truth in the universe lies in sustenance” tells us that the meaning of the blessing that is laid before us every day is a fact of the Holy Name All-Generous Provider.
As human beings in this world, we are always looking for peace, permanent happiness, aren’t we? Master Nursi says that eternal happiness is possible by reading the beautiful names of the Creator above them:
“Through seeing on everything the stamp of His power, the seal of His deity, and the inscriptions of His pen; True affirmation of Divine unity is to open a window directly onto His light from everything, to confirm and believe with almost the certainty of seeing that everything emerges from the hand of His power and seeing that in no way has He any partner or assistant in His deity or in His sovereignty, and thus to attain to a sort of perpetual awareness of the Divine presence.”
In fact, there seem two roads on the front: Like the first, to read the All-Generous Providerness on every blessing, to remember the Provider, or as the second, to throw everything into the darkness of chance and settle for temporary material tastes. That is, to betray our humanity, to turn our conscience. Yes, in material terms, everything that is not connected to its creator is mortal, temporary, and dark. There is no more. The beauties that are torn from their creator and turned into a toy of chance are the screams, condemned to disappear in an unmerciful death hurricane.
Being happy and reaching the perfect personality is possible only by establishing the right bond with our creator. While every blessing is a gift and a word of his love and while everything created tells us about Him, it is not wise to close our ears to all these wonderful whispers.
If we want to be happy;
If we want to take a conscientious loyalty class and fill in peace;
We have to learn to thank; we should love to thank.
