I read about a businessman who had an idea for a book. The title was going to be A Million Thanks, and the book was just going to say “Thanks” one million times. The idea was not to sell the book, but to hand them out for free to his clients as his unique way of expressing his gratitude for their business. He submitted the title to the Library of Congress to obtain the rights to his book.
But the Library of Congress responded by saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.” It is not possible to copyright just a single word, even if it is used a million times. I love what this demonstrates—that no one owns the exclusive rights to “thanks.” Being thankful is in the public domain; no one will get in trouble for saying thank you.
That means we all can and should be thankful people, and more than that, we should express our gratitude often. We should regularly say thank you to those who bless us, whether it is our Sunday school teachers, the ones who work with our children, or the waitress who served our table.
Take the time to tell someone thank you. As Paul told the Colossians, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful (3:15).”
But how much more should we express our gratitude to God for all that He has done for us? He created us and gave us life, and “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).” Besides the daily blessings we receive, God demonstrated His love to us while we were still sinners, sending His only begotten Son to die on the cross, taking the punishment that our sins deserved.
No one can copyright being thankful, but if it were possible, I think thanks should belong to Christians. We should be known for being the most thankful people in the world, because who has more to be thankful for than us? Our blessings are eternal. It is not a copyright violation to say thank you. We owe God a million thanks, so make sure you tell Him thank you every single day.
“Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!”
2 Corinthians 9:15