Giving Thanks

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving.  This is a time of year when, hopefully, we all take stock of our lives and realize, indeed, how truly blessed we are.  As we prepare for the upcoming Advent Season and the anticipation of the arrival of Christmas I realize that another year is drawing to a close.  It seems a good time to look back and reflect on the events that have shaped my life this year.

Some years are more life altering than others in our lives, to be sure.  Some years change and remake us. Some years are years of transition.  2010 has been such a year for me.  In addition to hitting the Big 5-0 this year, I also launched my youngest child into the world and faced down the proverbial empty nest.  The long journey with my best friend who is grappling with advanced breast cancer is now in its final stages, and I have faced transition issues both at work and at church which have been stressful.  I won't pretend that any of this has been easy, but what I have found is that out of darkness comes light, and that there is truth in what scripture teaches:  "My grace is sufficient for thee".

The biggest lesson this year that I have learned is that of God's provision.  And it is this that I am most thankful for.  For when I began to falter, and when it all just seemed like too much, into that space God reached down and extended His hand.  He provided for my need. He saw me struggling and interceded.  This is both humbling and awe inspiring to realize.  It reminds me so much of what we sing sometimes on Sunday-  "Who Am I ":  "Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth, would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?  Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star, would choose to light the way, for my every wandering heart? ".  Never have these words come more alive for me than in the past several months.  This I have found to be absolutely true- "still you hear me when I'm calling, Lord you catch me when I'm falling, and you've told me who I am- I am yours".

This has been brought home to me in new and wonderfully personal ways recently.  I always believed it to be true.  But this year I have experienced it firsthand for myself.  Thus making a much more powerful impression on me. It is always the things that experience teaches that we retain, rather than merely what we have read or heard about.

The lasting impact of the lessons I have learned is that I know absolutely that God is good in all circumstances, and that He wishes to bless us.  He will provide for all that we need.  Sometimes even without us having enough sense to ask Him to do so.  If that is not something worth giving thanks for, then I don't know what is......Shalom!