It is coming up to the Thanksgiving holiday soon. This year I keep kidding around
with folks because my birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving. So, for my 60th
birthday they are throwing a wonderful parade in New York City broadcast around
the world for my birthday!
All kidding aside, though, Thanksgiving is about gratitude. It is a way of seeing in
each day the great and wonderful things that God has done for us and continues to
do every day. It is looking out on a windy, rainy day and giving thanks to God for
the rain the water our fields, flowers and lawns, rather than focusing on the
darker skies. Or, it is seeing the beauty of those gray clouds as they roll by seeing
the textures and the various speeds of them or the shapes we see in them.
Gratitude is a choice. In a recent issue of “The Joyful Noiseletter” there is a
quote by Peggy Goldtrap of Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida. She says, “Without
gratitude I’ll always search and never see the treasures in front of me.” How true
that is! We overlook so much of what God gives us because we take it so much for
granted.
God has given us love, so that we might love one another. God has forgiven us our
sins so that the weight and burden of our guilt and shame can be washed clean,
giving us a new start and a new hope in eternal life. God has given us nature in all
its various shapes, smells, colors, seasons, and beauty to sustain life for us and to
provide things that please all our senses.
God gives us a new day—every day! God gives us the chance to change, to become
more faithful, to be more caring of others, to learn the lessons of Jesus more
deeply, to appreciate everyone around us, to see the divine spark in every person
and every part of creation.
I am grateful!!! As you enter the month of November, the month of the
Thanksgiving holiday, work at “giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:20)