THE UNBROKEN WORD
Thanksgiving. This wonderful time of the year where we get to meet with all the relatives we love. (And some perhaps less so ) It is a time for community, sharing, renewed relationships, understanding and most of all gratitude.
So much of Thanksgiving is focused on the second part of the word. The giving part. Retailers encourage giving like an Old Testament prelude to the coming of Christ at Christmas. When I first moved the USA, I could not believe Santa was visible so early in the season. It is the season of selling as much as it is of giving.
I have nothing against the giving part, it is often required for sharing and showing how we care for others; however, the first part of the word is sometimes less well serviced by us. The “thanks” part is to which I refer.
For the Thanks part to work, we need to have a position of gratitude. Gratitude is something which has to be in place for a true Thanksgiving to be in place. For it is in this embodied surrender and thankfulness to God that real gratitude is located. Gratitude which is an explosive combination of God’s grace-filled love captured in a loving embrace which is palpable, something we can feel. As real as the hug of our nieces, children, and grandchildren at Thanksgiving dinner.
Gratitude requires more than a simple “thanks” to God. It requires a dedicated celebration of what we have been blessed with and shared with those around us if we are lucky enough to have them near during this wonderful time.
It is a time to be grateful for the simple things, a roof over our heads, food on the table, relationships, friends, community, the ability to be able to help others and the love of God which surrounds us always.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving! But more than that embrace gratitude for the gift it is, and our God who provides us with the ability to hold it entirely in his love.
Joshua Tree National Park at Dusk
ARRIVED
Another destination
Appeared without looking
Found by merely walking in the woods
Without a flashlight
How wonderful is that.
