Dayenu and Thank You by Mike Buchanan
There’s a word in the Hebrew language called dayenu. Roughly translated, it means it had been enough. I understand sometimes it’s translated in the Bible as enough for one particular day. I first became aware of it in a Joel Rosenberg series of books about 15 or 16 years ago. The essence of the use is to thank God for what He provides every day. The thought being, to my way of thinking, is He gives what He knows we need when He knows we need it. I think that the Hebrew phrase dayenu and our English thank you should be closely linked. Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (KJV), says, “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” I think it might be worth noting, Paul says “in everything”, but not necessarily for everything. Although I think there are some things that might seem bad at the time, but that people may thank God for, that we might find strange.
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I’m reminded of the Ten Boom sisters in a Nazi concentration camp. Corrie’s sister, Betsie, was able to thank God for the fleas, much to her sister’s utter shock. Betsie’s reasoning was that with the fleas being there, the guards didn’t want to come in; therefore, the women could pray with each other. Maybe you were once in a relationship that you thought was the right one, and it ended sooner than you liked. Now you’re with the one the Lord meant for you, but you realize the only way it could have happened was for the other relationship to have ended. Before my wife and I met, I was in a relationship that I thought was “the one”, but I eventually realized it wasn’t. Three months before I met my wife, someone told me God was going to send a woman to me who would be immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. They were right.
