30+ Days of Thanksgiving, Day 38: The People Who Serve Me

Today I am expressing my thankfulness to God for the various people who serve me regularly, often without appreciation or even notice. In particular, I am thankful for the person who delivers our mail, the people who drive the trucks that take away our trash and our recycling materials, and the people who maintain our utility services at our home (gas, electric, cable). 

I am also thankful for the people who drive the snowplow trucks that clear our roads when it snows, even when they plow a pile of packed snow, ice and sandy gravel into my freshly shoveled driveway mouth. I'm thankful for the emergency services workers that stand ready to help me when I really need it—the volunteer firefighters, the police officers, the EMTs and paramedics that are ready to assist me. 

I will mention here also our newspaper carrier, who faithfully delivered our newspaper right up until we decided to discontinue this service. Having done this particular job myself for 10 months recently, I can truly appreciate what a thankless and grueling job that is. In my memory, I cannot remember a single day that our paper was not delivered to the tube in a protective plastic bag, neat, clean and dry, and always on time. Though we have tried to show our appreciation at Christmastime with what for us is a generous Christmas gift/tip, I now know that it wasn't nearly enough.

To the best of my knowledge, these people I have mentioned do not know me personally, nor I them. We have no history together that would warrant their faithful care of me, my family, our home and property. It is their job, I understand. They are paid, or they have chosen, in some cases, to volunteer, to do whatever it is that they do. They most probably have no specific reason to take good care of me personally. Yet take care of me they do. They may be highly compensated for their service, though I think that unlikely in most cases. These people take care of me every day to a greater or lesser extent. They are anonymous to me, mostly. I seldom even see them going about their business, and when I do, I even more rarely speak to them, make eye contact with them, or acknowledge them in any way. Not because I don't wish to; it's just the way things are.

Having now thought about these people long enough to write this post, I wonder if I will pay more attention to these hard working people in the future? I hope that I will. I realize that I have taken them for granted for most of my life. They would probably say that nobody pays any attention to them, or at least, not until something goes wrong. Then suddenly, that person now is at the focus of my irritated attention—a condition that is hardly conducive to being thankful for them and what they do.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the people who attend to my needs every day, every week, or as they are needed. Thank you that they are nearly always present and efficient in the discharge of their tasks. Will You, Father, please help me remember not to take these people for granted, but to show to them, whenever and however possible, that I am truly thankful for them and for what they do for me? Thank you.