Dear Lord, thank you so much for filling our lives with so many blessings. Truly, we are too little grateful for the many gifts you have heaped upon us, gifts that we possibly have never thanked you for because we took them for granted. Now that our Parkinson’s disease is beginning to diminish some of those gifts, we can realize what a treasure-filled life we have had and be grateful.
Some of us Parkies were able for many years to enjoy our sense of smell. We relished the aromas of freshly brewing coffee and pizza hot from the oven and perfume calling attention to someone and food sizzling on the barbeque and flowers in the field or in a bouquet and cherries and oranges and other fruit and hot chocolate and the air after lightning and the soil after rain and the ocean mist as the waves pounded on the shore and the pine forest as the gentle breeze hummed through the branches of the trees. Now many of us can no longer smell any of these things. And we thank you for that, Lord, because the loss makes us so deeply grateful for such a wonderful and delightful gift we enjoyed all those years. Thank you Lord.
In our losses with Parkinson’s, we celebrate the gains we used to have. How many abilities, activities, and senses you gave us that we took for granted. As David says in the Psalms,
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. (Psalm 139:14, NASB).
So we are grateful to you today, Lord God, for taking an unhappy disease and bringing joy and thankfulness out of it. As Paul says,
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28, NASB)
Thank you for finding the positive in the midst of our challenges and for reminding us of the gratitude we owe you. We thank you and praise you with all our heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.