The Israeli ambassador to Washington says a ceasefire agreement to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could come “within days.” Israel’s security cabinet is set to vote today on a proposed deal. The agreement comes after Israel achieved its stated strategic war aims with Hezbollah and will allow hundreds of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border to return home over time.

In other headline news, special counsel Jack Smith moved yesterday to abandon two criminal cases against Donald Trump. His team emphasized that the move did not reflect on the merit of the cases but recognized that Mr. Trump’s return to the White House will preclude attempts to federally prosecute him.

Ten-Year-Old Calls 911 for Help with Math
While these stories are dominating the news today, I’d like to point you to three others that you might otherwise miss:

o A ten-year-old boy in Wisconsin called 911 to say that he needed help with his math homework since his family “wasn’t very good at math.” The dispatcher explained that 911 was not the appropriate number to call for such assistance but then put out a call to see if a deputy was in the area. Deputy Sheriff Chase o Mason came to the rescue, helping to solve the boy’s decimal-related math problem.
o A blind man tripped while getting onto a train in England, so a group of travelers helped him to his seat. Once the man sat down, he realized he was missing a shoe which had slipped between the platform and the train. When he panicked, another rider took off his shoe and gave it to the man.
o A seventy-nine-year-old grandmother broke her leg during a hike in Mount Rainier National Park. A group spotted her and called 911 but was told a search-and-rescue team would take five hours to reach their location. Then US Air Force Airman Troy May appeared on the scene and carried the elderly woman down the mountain on his back.
o These stories will not reshape the conflict in the Middle East or become a part of American political history. They did not directly affect anyone except the people who were helped and perhaps their immediate families. But how did you feel when you read them?

The sociologist Peter Berger identified “signals of transcendence,” dimensions of our lives that point to realities that transcend us. Among them, he listed our capacities for order, play, hope, morality, and humor.

What if selfless service is another? What if stories of incarnational compassion point us to the supreme gift and Giver of grace?

“A Grinning Thief Walking the Golden Streets of Heaven”
Yesterday, we identified our primary reason for giving thanks to God this week: the salvation purchased by his Son on the cross as he paid our debt, died our death, and rose to bring us eternal life.

However, what Jesus did for us twenty centuries ago was just the beginning. Consider some of the ways he is still serving us today:

o He is “interceding for us” right now (Romans 8:34; cf. Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1).
o He is holding us in his omnipotent hand (John 10:28).
o He is healing by his power and grace (cf. Acts 3:6–7).
o He is guiding us by his “yoke” (Matthew 11:28–30).
o He is empowering us to do “all things” (Philippians 4:13).
o He is continuing his earthly ministry through us, his “body” (1 Corinthians 12:27).
o He is preparing our eternal home (John 14:2–3).
o One day, he will take us there (v. 3).

Max Lucado wrote:

It makes me smile to think there’s a grinning thief walking the golden streets of heaven who knows more about grace than a thousand theologians. No one else would have given the thief on the cross a prayer. But in the end, that is all he had. And in the end, that’s all it took.

Mistaking the Reflection for the Real
I was walking around a lake near our home the other day and noticed the reflection of the surrounding trees on the surface of the water. The question occurred to me: What if somehow I could see only these reflections and not the trees themselves? Like the prisoners in Plato’s cave analogy who can see only their shadows projected on the wall before them, I would believe that these reflections are the entire reality of what we call “trees.”

My question highlights this fact of human finitude: We do not know what we do not know.

Imagine a world in which we were fully aware of all that Jesus is doing for us right now. Would we “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)? Would we perpetually “offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Psalm 50:14)? Would every day be Thanksgiving Day?

If not, is it because Jesus has changed? Is it because his continued ministry in our lives is any less real or transforming? Or is it because we have taken his mercy and grace for granted? Since we cannot see him visibly at work, do we fail to credit him for all he does for us every day?

“Yet I Will Rejoice in the L???”
Seeking to live a life of gratitude positions us to see the hand of Jesus in every dimension of our lives. It then empowers us to find his grace at work, even in the hard places of our days. In this way, we discover with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

One of the most powerful faith statements in all of Scripture is the declaration of the prophet Habakkuk at the end of the book bearing his name:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the L???; I will take joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17–18).

As a result, he can testify:

“God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places” (v. 19).

Will you tread on your “high places” today?

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