I must be getting more sentimental in my old age. Over the last few years I have developed a great love for poetry. In so many ways it expresses the deepest feelings of the soul. It is my conviction that this is why the Holy Spirit used poetry in the Word of God to articulate some of the deepest truths surrounding our relationship to God. Poetry is one of God’s beautiful messengers.

In my office I keep some volumes of famous and favorite poems. This week I came across a poem that I had never read. It was written by one of the truly great Bible teachers of another generation, Dr. James M. Gray. As I read it for the first time I wept. It is thought-provoking and soul-searching.

It’s simple title is “For Thanksgiving Day,” but its text is a reminder that one day – any day! – without God would make this world an unfit place to live.

Pause today and read it out loud to your family. May God use it to speak to you as it did to me. Think…and be thankful.

For Thanksgiving Day

If God forgot the world for just one day,

Then little children would not laugh and play;

Birds would not in the leafy woodlands sing,

And roses would not beautify the spring.

No gentle showers throughout the summer long,

No autumn field to cheer the heart with song,

No rising sun, no moon to give its light,

No placid lake reflect the stars of night.

No friend to help us on the toilsome road,

No one to help us bear the heavy load.

No light to shine upon the pilgrim way,

No one to care, or wipe the tear away.

No listening ear to hear the lost one call,

No eye to see the righteous battler fall.

No balm of Gilead to dull the throbbing pain,

No one to comfort and sustain.

Millions would die in unforgiven sin,

With none to bring the lost and straying in;

Yea, this great universe would melt away,

If God forgot the world for just one day.

                        -Dr. James M. Gray