Thanksgiving has passed, and December is here.
As earnestly as it was hoped for, the holiday did not go by this year without a hitch. What was planned to be a quiet day of quality time with family, eating a big dinner, enjoying a rainy Thanksgiving, turned out to be, just the opposite (well, except for the rain).
The thing I didn't realize was I missed out on the whole giving thanks part. I probably wasn't feeling to thankful that day, but that's kind of a ridiculous thing to say, when there is always plenty to give thanks for. I mean, there was no turkey dinner, or real quality time with family...crap crept its way in, and instead for me, there was this earnest awareness that completely enveloped me.
It was this awareness of the sad state of so many of the lives surrounding me. I was literally to the point of tears driving to work that day thinking of all the brokenness and emptiness in the in the lives I am witness to, and this in some ways includes my own life.
So there I am, just feeling so meh! so sad, so heartbroken, so discouraged, so hopeless...and in those same moments of pity and sorrow, there is something like a soft whisper in my ear. There is a gentle hand wiping the tears from my cheek. There is a strong arm wrapped around my trembling body...and then I just know. I know it's Him, and I begin to feel a calm wash over me.
I know He is there. He knew my Thanksgiving day would end up like this. He knew where I would be when all the emotion and messiness of the day finally bubbled up and over and began to crowd in on me. Even though I never conciously asked for Him to come, He did. He was there. He is here...and I am thankful! SO THANKFUL! I had forgotten, even just for a moment, or an hour, or even the whole day, that He was there, that He cared, and He knew...He knows!
The phrase heaps of gratitude popped into my head. I was thinking of massive piles of fallen leaves covering the front yard in its entirety...would not even begin to express the heaps of gratitude I feel even right now.
Thankful...overwhelmed with gratitude.
He is real...so much bigger than our circumstances and feelings...ever present...always faithful...and I'm thankful!
