It may be hard to remember all the things that other people did that enable us to enjoy our time of communion. A team of people arrived early this morning and put the bread into these plates, filled the cups, and carried them upstairs to this table. Before that, someone woke up early, then made, baked, cut, and packed the bread. Before that, the same someone bought all the necessary ingredients and paid the electric bill so she they could turn on the oven. Before that, someone figured out how to beat flour and bake it into something chewy and tasty.

A moment’s reflection should help us be thankful for all the parts of the process I mentioned, let alone the thousands of other steps I didn’t. Yet in the back of our minds, we may be thinking, “Yeah, but I could do all that for myself if I needed to.” Maybe we could.

However, we could not give the Son like the Father did. We could not give our flesh for the life of others like the Son did. We could not give life to ourselves, or to anyone else, like the Spirit did. We could not give a rip about any of it without the Trinity.

We are far too easily presumptuous, giving ourselves far too much credit. We need to give thanks for what we’ve been given. We need to give God glory for His gracious gifts. We won’t even do that unless He gives us help to do so.