A Binary Thanksgiving

I'm sure all of us are starting to overload on the thankful posts on Facebook. I've stopped reading most of them, simply because they all say the same things: I'm thankful for family, friends, Jesus, food, being American, etc. Now, by no means do I discount these thanks because they are by far some of the greatest blessings in all of life and probably the ones we take for granted most often.

With all of this status-posting of thanks, I've tried to think of things outside the basics that I'm thankful for, and this is what I've come up with:

1. I'm thankful for sickness, so I have a better understanding of healing and health.
2. I'm thankful for pain because it allows me to appreciate comfort.
3. I'm thankful for stress because it lets me recognize peace.
4. I'm thankful for those who have left my life so that I more dearly love those who have stuck around.
5. I'm thankful for the absence of God so that I may more deeply live in His presence.
6. I'm thankful for death so that I may greatly cherish my life. 

Of course if we could have a perfect society, a perfect world, I would be the first to welcome it, but the fact is that we can't. Poverty, sickness, pain, anger, addiction, evil, they're inescapable. While it's a weird sort of thanksgiving, it's a thanksgiving nonetheless. Even though I've had my struggles, I'm thankful for the growth and maturity they've given me. 

I guess in short, you could summarize it as God, thank you for the struggle and beauty that is life.