Monday, November 28, 2016

Thanksgiving 2016, In the Past

Thanksgiving 2016, over and done.  But not really.  

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday.  I love Christmas, and my birthday (hehe), but there’s just something about having a season set aside to devote to gratitude.  It’s not natural you know, to just be thankful all the time.  In fact, it most often has to be cultivated because it’s much easier to be critical, to complain, to be discontented.  Why do you think toddlers will throw temper tantrums when they don’t get their way? Or why is it that “mine”, or “more” are often their first words.  They have to be taught to say “thank you”.  The Scripture reminds us often to be thankful, perhaps for this very reason...we’re naturally not.  Gratitude becomes a reality when, and only when, we understand and appreciate the value of all of life’s gifts.  And every gift has value because it comes from God.  

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights.” (James 1: 17)  

Here’s where it gets tricky.  Who decides what “good” is?  Well, it can’t be us. Because our idea of good and someone else’s idea of good would not be the same, or what we might see as bad, God may view otherwise.  No, God, the authority on “good”, gets to decide.  That means it may not always appear to be good, or feel very good.  But God can be trusted.  If it comes from Him, it’s good, or, He can bring good from it or make it good.  

As Thanksgiving approached this year, my husband and I found ourselves in a different situation than we have been in for a while. Through a series of circumstances we could never have seen coming, by the end of September we were both unemployed for the first time in twenty years.  He still pastors a small church, but this other job together with mine made up over half our income.  And just three short years ago we purchased a 25-acre farm and began raising alpacas and rabbits.  Our son and his wife and 6 children live with us and are a huge part of the operation.  We also took on the responsibility of my mother-in-law that lives in her own home on the property. And we still had not sold our other home.  None of this was without the confidence that God was directing in all of this.  We stood on this very property surrounded by our children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, and close friends on our 35th wedding anniversary and recommitted ourselves to each other and the God that had brought us to this point, knowing in our innermost being that more change was in our future.  Coming to the farm had just been the first step.  It had all seemed so crazy, how it all had happened.  But there was no doubt it was a “God-thing”, and we wanted nothing more than to see Him continue to do great things...the kind of things that leave you somewhat dazed at His grace and goodness and power and involvement in our lives!  

Losing our jobs was not part of that plan!  Being three years at the farm without being able to sell the other house was not part of the plan!  Our plan that is.  But God’s plan, yes!  There was the initial shock when the change came so unexpectedly, a great deal of hurt and betrayal over how things played out (this was not just a job to us, it was a ministry we loved dearly), anger and then questions about what next?  But in a matter of days praying and looking to the great God we serve and staying in His Word for wisdom to make decisions, strength to keep trusting, comfort to experience healing, direction to know what to do next, encouragement to praise Him in the loss, and power to forgive and move on, well, God was working.  

He is still working.  He is providing and opening doors and enabling us to manage.  By the end of October our home was under contract, and it was quite obvious to both parties that God had been saving this home for this couple at this time!  We couldn’t help but be excited for them.  They spent their first Thanksgiving together in their own “nest”  (from a verse of Scripture this couple shared with us that confirmed to them this was the home the Lord was providing...Psalm 84:3, “Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself.”). A company, with info from the local tax office, called and has surveyed our property for timber they wish to purchase.  And as of today, we are moving forward with plans to expand our own business with the opening of a shop, blown away by how the opportunity has presented itself and the steps that are quickly falling into place.  

I read yesterday morning from Psalm 126:    

    “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then
Our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.  Then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord HAS done great things for us and we are glad.”  

Like a dream, I can imagine exactly how the children of Israel felt because that’s how I feel.  And I can’t help but be “glad”, and filled with laughter and yes, singing!  Because I have been there before and seen God do those exceedingly abundant things....Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us”.  It is part of what has cultivated this humble heart of gratitude, seeing God do what only God can do, seeing Him as the faithful God that He is.  Seeing Him take something that can be so devastating and bring beauty from it.  Not all of those times were pleasant either.  They brought hardship and a time of doing without.  We didn’t always have the latest and greatest, or the newest or the most fashionable.  But our faith was made stronger.  Our relationships as a family were made stronger.  Our boys cultivated a personal faith in God of their own that has given them a solid foundation for their own families and futures now.  

So I look back, and I thank God.  I look forward, and I thank God.  It has not always come easy, but I know it is His will to be thankful*, so in obedience I verbalize it until it becomes a swelling, solid reality in my heart and life.  I have made it a habit over the years...to lay hands on the washing machine and say “thank you Lord that our family has clothes to get dirty and that I can wash; thank you Lord for this jalopy of a car that gets us where we need to go; thank you Lord for my precious grandparents that I will miss dearly, but I know they are with you; thank you Lord for the chance to lead that child to Christ…” and the list goes on.  Any and every chance, throughout any given day God has taken that gratitude, and changed me.  

I don’t know where He will take us from here, but I know it will be His good.  Thanksgiving Day is over and done for another year, but the thanksgiving continues.  Some things take some time, and are harder to be thankful for.  But His grace is powerful and available when I fail to direct a thankful heart to Him.  I can only pray He will enable me to always do so and I will always let Him help me…

...simply be thankful.  


*I Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  
Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”