GRATEFUL FOR GIANTS

I am short. So, when people ask me how tall I am, I tell them, “I’m not.” But I come from a line of giants. Let me tell you how. 

When I turn the calendar at the end of a month, my mind takes inventory of that little box of time. November: All Saints’ Day, Election Day, Veterans Day, and a few others, but Thanksgiving Day – that’s the big one. It waits there, in capital letters, at the end of the month, saying, “Come on, man, what are you thankful for?” To which I reply, “Don’t rush me; I’ve got all month.” Throughout the year, of course, I try to count my blessings as they come. But as I look ahead to a table of plenty and a tree of presents, it’s a good time to get specific about God’s abundance and my gratitude, my plenty. It’s good to say it aloud. Or write it. 

I am profoundly thankful for my spiritual heritage and all of its inherent blessings: The Christian family God gave me to grow up in. Many brothers and sisters in Christ from numerous congregations. My home church. My small group. People who walk with me across the hills of theology. A surplus of Bibles. Scriptural understanding, albeit imperfect. 

As a Restoration Movement Christian, I look back to the church established by Jesus Christ – to the doctrine taught by the apostles and recorded in Scripture, and I am pleased to come from that lineage; I gladly and proudly claim that line. But I know the line from Acts 2 to me isn’t straight, quick, or easy. My awareness and gratitude turn to amazement and wonder when I consider how many people it took to get the gospel to me and get me to the gospel. 

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Isaac Newton penned these words to a colleague in 1675, humbly acknowledging scientific legacy and the continuity of knowledge. Newton knew more because previous scientists had known some. The same is true for you and me. Not just with science – or business, art, letters, athletics, and the like, but with Christian theology and spiritual understanding. We would all do well to remember our own giants, from whose shoulders we see all of creation.

Of course, it all starts with God and His creation, then the long line of people who sought to know Him and His Word. Think of the lineages in Genesis, the Davidic line, the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, the “By faith” giants of Hebrews 11, and our own faith-DNA relation to Father Abraham (Gal. 3:7), who, as the song says, had many sons. I am one of them, and so are you. And all of us have looked to the Lord, to Christ, to the Word, to “guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79b). We couldn’t do it on our own. 

I am grateful for the early church, for its bold Spirit-led faithfulness and biblical diligence. I am grateful for the Protestant Reformation, for its many reformers and their acknowledgment of the five solas. I am grateful for the Restoration Movement and its humble awareness that we are “Christians only” and should “sink into union with the Body of Christ at large.” I am grateful for the Great Awakenings and their calls for the sleeper to rise in revival. 

I am thankful for the Bible translators and printers, for the many missionaries and martyrs. I am thankful for the shepherds of the church, for the multitude of Bible teachers and preachers, those who taught others to teach others. Can you see the spiritual legacy we have received and notice the continuity of spiritual knowledge we are a part of? Have you noticed the giants? 

As I sit in the quiet of the still-dark morning, drinking coffee while my lovely family still sleeps and God’s work for me waits patiently, I read and pray. That’s my quiet time, my Bible time. And as I sit with a Bible that has come to me from the mouth of God – through the Spirit, across the ages, because of His workers who were victorious over obstacles and persecution – I am humbled and thankful. 

And if – while I sit peacefully with scores of translations in my hand, next to stacks of commentaries – if I eventually have a profound thought or finally realize the truth of an elusive passage, I cannot be proud of myself. But I can turn and look at you, standing on the other shoulder and looking out, and say, “Hello, brother.” And thank the Lord.