Thankfulness characterized the thoughts and the prayers of Christ Jesus, and this attitude of mind demonstrated power over error. Whether the outlook to human sense was favorable or not, the Master always found something constructive for which to express thanks. Even when he upbraided the unrepentant cities where his greatest works were done, he found immediate cause for gratitude that it is to the innocent and not to the worldly-wise that God reveals His truths. Jesus knew the mighty protection this fact furnishes the unworldly. When the disciples' limited sense saw little to be grateful for in the few loaves and fishes a lad provided, the Master gave thanks, used the good at hand, and was able to feed a multitude. He understood the spiritual law that gratitude to God as the source of supply multiplies the evidence of divine Love's infinite bestowals, and he brought that law to bear upon the situation confronting him.
When, at Lazarus' tomb, Jesus stood before the cold and uncompromising stone that typified the finality of death, his heart was filled with thanks that the Father hears the Christly response to Life and through Christ reveals the deathlessness of man. His gratitude for immortality blotted out what the sense dream of mortality had claimed to accomplish, and Lazarus came forth from the tomb. During the last supper, with its symbolism of dedication to a life task of self-immolation, the Master gave thanks as he took the cup, thus designating the gratitude his followers should feel for the privilege of giving up fully the mortal sense of life in matter for the salvation of mankind. "Drink ye all of it," he said (Matt. 26:27), implying that our proof of Christliness must be complete.
Jesus' sense of values did not conform to the world's. His works show that he was always looking beyond the things considered precious by men to the treasures of Spirit— purity, love, and peace. Once we accept this sense of values, we are willing to drink the cup of demonstration, willing to bend every effort to our awakening to the absolute truths of being—God's allness and oneness, and man's perfection as His spiritual likeness. And we are able to give thanks every step of the way as we prove the illusiveness of material life.
