It is proper that we give thanks to almighty God on every day of the year, but as we mark Thanksgiving in America this week, we can be particularly thankful there is not more religious, ethnic and geopolitical conflict across the face of the globe than there actually is. While the world is certainly not in the state we would wish it would be, the reality is that it could be catastrophically worse.

In the not too distant past, India and Pakistan were at each other’s throats, literally on the brink of a nuclear showdown. Millions of people on the Indian subcontinent could have perished simply through a miscalculation. As dire as things appear to be in Pakistan at the moment, tensions between India and Pakistan have certainly deescalated from that very dangerous nuclear precipice of a few years ago. While we certainly hope and pray things will improve in Pakistan and that Pakistanis soon will be able to participate in free and open elections, in which people who are committed to the democratic process and to human rights and freedom will be elected, things could be far worse in Pakistan than they are currently.

And in the neighboring country of Afghanistan, we should be grateful that while conditions are far from where we hoped they would be, the future for citizens of this nation is far brighter than it was when the Taliban was in control just a few short years ago. Hope and opportunity grow daily in Iraq as well.

We are mindful of the thousands of coalition forces on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. These men and women will spend this Thanksgiving away from their families, focused on securing freedom for the citizens of those two countries and on defeating those committed to unleashing even more terror on innocent civilians. I am grateful for those men and women who are willing to risk their lives so that we can live our lives in peace. My prayers are with all those who have family members in harm’s way, as well as the soldiers, sailors and airmen who serve our nation.

We also can be grateful that for all the tensions in the world, there are more people living in freedom today than at any time in human history. The expectation is that freedom is waxing, rather than waning, in the world, even in places like China.

Here at home, we can acknowledge imperfections in our country and the fact there are many who are in want and in dire circumstances, yet at the same time be thankful for the bounty of our country. Blessings by definition are undeserved, and by virtually any calculation that one could construct, average Americans of average income living in average communities have more to be grateful for in terms of their freedoms, health care, opportunities and their share of the world’s goods than any comparable people at any time in human existence.

We live in a great country, but we serve a much greater God.

Those who settled our nation experienced firsthand the providence of God. The colonists of the Plymouth Plantation gave thanks to God in a feast held in the fall of 1621. From that day forward, Americans have marked a day of Thanksgiving to express gratitude to the God from whom all blessings flow.