After visiting his wife at a residence for Alzheimer's patients, retired pastor Browning Ware described the scene as he and close friends prepared to leave: "We shared hugs all around and held hands in prayer. So much to be grateful for! I thanked God for family, for friends, and for His radical love that liberates us even when caught within life's clawing circumstances."

As we pause to thank God for every way He has blessed us, it's good to remember that our greatest treasure is His unfailing love. Too often our thankfulness ebbs and flows with our health or financial security. We equate God's blessing with freedom from pain and sorrow. But through faith and experience we learn that God's great love for us expressed in Jesus Christ can calm our hearts and minds even in the most taxing situations.

Four times in Psalm 107 we read, "Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" (vv.8,15,21,31). Even when life seems overwhelming, we can cry out to the Lord and find His deliverance from our distress (vv.6,13,19,28).

It is not health or wealth, but God's unfailing love that sets us free in every circumstance of life.  — David C. McCasland