Bowling Green Covenant Church

Friday 18 November 2005

“Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known
among the nations what He has done.” -Psalm 105.1 [NIV]

Archie Erickson was 85-years-old when I met him. As far as I
know he never traveled more than 250 miles from his farm in
north central North Dakota. He was a short man with a barrel
chest. He had salt and pepper hair cut short and he wore
thick, black-rimmed glasses. He’d been a farmer all his
life, but his glasses reminded me of my eleventh grade
trigonometry teacher.

I visited him shortly after his wife, Emma, passed away. We
drink weak coffee and ate stale sugar cookies. I was a young
pastor from Long Island, New York by way of Boston,
Massachusetts adjusting to life on the North Dakota prairie.
He was a life-long farmer adjusting to life without the
woman who’d been by side for more than 60 years. I did my
best to ask the right questions-especially when it came to
farming and livestock.

As we walked to the door at the end of my visit, I noticed a
large set of horns hanging above the door. They looked like
they’d been taken from a longhorn cattle. I asked Archie
where the horns came from and his face lit up with the
excitement of a middle-aged man talking about his first hot
rod. “Ja,” he said in a thick German accent, “that was a
good bull. He was around a long time. He gave my cows plenty
of calves. But then he got old and I had to shoot him. Emma
helped me with the butchering. We got enough meat off him to
last us almost three years. Ja,” he said again, “He was a
good bull. And them are his horns. When I see them I
remember him. And I remember Emma. And I thank the Lord for
giving me such a wonderful woman.”

God works in mysterious ways to stir His people to remember
Him and to give Him thanks. Sometimes it’s a pair of bull’s
horns. Sometimes it’s looking back through the family
calendar that hangs in the kitchen. We remember birthdays,
anniversaries, and trips to fun places. Sometimes, as with
Archie, God prompts us to give thanks by remembering loved
ones who’ve left us. However, even as God causes us to give
Him thanks the psalmist reminds us that thanksgiving is not
an option. It’s a command that is expressed through personal
connection with God as well as interpersonal declaration of
what He has done.
“Give thanks to the LORD,
(1) call on His name;
(2) make known among the nations what He has done.”

When we call on the name of the LORD, we make a personal
connection with Him. The LORD is the I AM who delights in
the well-being of His children (Psalm 35.27). He is the I AM
who has done great things in all the earth (Genesis 1.1,3).
He is the I AM who gives seed for the sower and bread for
the eater (Isaiah 55.10). When we “make known among the
nations what He has done” we preach “His power throughout
the universe displayed.” We preach His power made personal
in the Person of His Son. We preach His power made even more
personal through the Father and the Son making in their home
in the heart of those who prepare them room in it.

I don’t have a set of long horns hanging over my back door.
I do have a wife and three great kids. I have a ministry
that enables me to serve people like Archie Erickson, who
are changed by the God the Father through the work of God
the Holy Spirit through faith in God the Son, Jesus Christ.
So for these and other blessings I will give thanks to the
LORD.

How about you?

May the LORD who is the I AM help you give thanks to Him.
May the LORD who is the I AM help you call on His name. May
the LORD who is the I AM help you make known among those
around you what He has done.

You think about that.
MM