THIS week at our weekly school assembly we thought about the story where Jesus healed ten people but only one of them returned after they had been examined to say thank you to Jesus for healing him.

The conversation got on to counting up how many times we had said thank you already that morning, a thank you for preparing breakfast, another for taking them to school, a thank you for the sandwiches in their lunch box and so the list continued.

The message of the story was quite simple, how often do we take other people for granted, for the things they do for us, or just simple for being there in times of need.

And yet there is a much deeper significance in this story. ‘Thank you’ is a measure of how we treat other people, how much we respect we show to those around us and the sense of humility we live our lives by that make us appreciative of other people taking the time to do things for us.

The ten people in Jesus’ story had probably been sitting on the road side many years, asking for help, begging for money to get by on. Jesus was one of many hundreds, perhaps thousands, who had crossed their path. Yet the difference was, he stopped and helped, but only one said thank you. Sadly that is probably a statistic that would ring true today, only one in ten being thankful.

I challenged the children at school for an outbreak of being thankful at school, to recognise and say thank you at every opportunity, both the giver and receiver would have a better day for it. It’s a simple task to do each, but one that can make a profound difference.

The Rev Stuart Stobart

Priest-in-Charge of Hellifield and Long Preston with Tosside