The Poor Family's Gratitude
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As a poor, pious man was sitting by his little fire one cold evening, with his wife and children, he said to them, “I have been thinking a great deal today about that part of Scripture, ‘The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.’ How wonderful it is, that we, who are so sinful, unworthy, and helpless, should be more favoured than he was!”
“It is wonderful, indeed, father,” said the eldest girl; “for though our house is mean, and our food scanty, compared with the houses and way of living of great folks, yet it seems that Jesus Christ was not so well provided for as we are.”
“I am right glad to hear you speak in that way, Sarah,” said the wife. “How happy we all are in our little dwelling this cold night; and as soon as we wish, we have beds to rest ourselves upon; wherein, sharp and piercing as the frost is, and bleak and stormy as the wind blows, we shall be comfortable and warm; and yet the Son of Man, as your father has just told us, ‘had not where to lay His head.’ O, that this thought may make us thankful for many mercies!”
"Tommy”, said the father, “reach that hymn, which our dear minister gave you last week at the Sunday School; and as our hearts are in a good frame, let us try to keep them so by singing it.”
The whole company, father, mother, and children, then, with a glow of sacred ardour and pleasure, sung the hymn entitled, “The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.”
Here in the above story we see how a thankful heart towards God could be inculcated and be contagiously made to spread to all those around for what we have, when we compare ourselves to those who even do not even have what we have. Such gratitude of thankfulness could give us all great contentment for what we have.
At the same time when Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Matt 8:20), it does not mean that Jesus described how poor He was to not even have a place to rest or buy a pillow and a mat to sleep. Instead Jesus used a figure of speech to convey to the certain scribe who came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go,” that when he wants to follow Jesus who does the will of God all the time according to heaven's instruction, then he has to forget about having a permanent place to sleep and a comfortable bed time. Implicitly Jesus was saying to that scribe who was very excited about following Jesus, that in the will of God, persecution might come and he will have flee from place to place, they might catch hold of him and bring him before kings and governors as a testimony for God, then from time to time food will not be placed in a table to be eaten and a time when no proper place to rest also might arise at certain times. And to another disciple who wanted to follow him, Jesus clearly expressed that in the will of God he might have to leave his father and mother and his fleshly family and relatives to go away to fulfill the will of God for his life. Sadly both of these above people did not follow Jesus further because they felt that the cost of the discipleship was great and that they were not able to leave their comfort zones.
But if we are thankful to God in the will of God with a gratitude for giving life as a gift to experience and not just hold on to our bodily comfort as the prime priority even above obeying the voice of God, then we will be very happy, joyful and content like the family above to experience heaven on earth again and again. Then we will also be followers of Jesus and his true disciples in the world as long as we are present. May God help us to be the true followers of Jesus!
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