THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS 2012

Last night our church had its usual Thanksgiving Eve service.  It’s different from the one we have on a typical Sunday.  We sang some wonderful contemporary songs about the love of God, songs you can clap to, songs that made my heart full of joy and thanksgiving to the Lord.  

We also had communion, the symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for us and of our unity with Him, and with one another as brothers and sisters in Jesus.  

When we finished with communion the service took a turn from our familiar Sunday format.  For the rest of our time together we were given the opportunity to stand up and give the Lord praise for the ways in which He has worked in our lives.  There were some wonderful testimonies to God’s grace –in  a long time illness finally diagnosed; in the safe return of a young man who had served in Afghanistan; for sons and daughters home from college; and many other thanks- givings. Before I even entered the church my heart was full of gratitude, so all these blessings added to my joyful praise.  

Sitting there listening to others, I was struck by the mercy and grace of God in a new way.  

I remember reading a book that asked the question:  If heaven wasn’t included in the “package” of believing in Jesus, if believing was only beneficial for TODAY, would you still believe?  My answer would be a resounding YES!  I am so grateful to know God, to know that God loves me.  That He loved me enough to pay the ultimate price of the life of His Son so that I could come near.  So that I could love HIM!  The God of the universe!  The Creator of all things!  I can KNOW Him – not just for all eternity – but for NOW! Every day I live He gives me glimpses of Himself.

How grateful I am for Jesus, for His willingness to go to the cross, giving His life for mine, so that I could KNOW Him.  I was filled last night with the delight, the privilege, the blessing of KNOWING Jesus!  If there was no heaven to come with the package, the blessing of knowing Jesus NOW would be enough. 

I’m so grateful also that oneness with Jesus makes me one as well with all the others who also belong to Him.  I looked around the sanctuary at all those familiar faces and thanked the Lord for my brothers and sisters in Christ.  How I love them!

But these weren’t the only reasons I was filled with gratitude last night.  I was filled with gratitude for all those college students home for Thanksgiving, sitting in the pews with their family.  The Lord has blessed me to know so many of them personally simply because the youth group needed a female chaperone for a missions trip and I went.  What a privilege to know them!  What a privilege to see them grow into young men and women with a heart for God.  

I know what the Apostle John means in 3 John, verse 4:

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

These young adults are not my biological children, but in a way many of them are my spiritual children because I have prayed for them and been blessed to invest in their lives.  It gives me so much joy to see them walking in the truth!

I’m thankful for so much: for my family, for the food that goes along with this day, for extended family we’ll see later, for the country in which I live that sets aside a day to give God thanks, for young adults learning to walk with Jesus.   

But mostly I’m grateful for those more intangible gifts that cannot be readily “seen” that come about because Jesus came.

My cup is full.  Thank you Jesus.