It is good to give thanks to the Lord (Psalm 92:1).
Our family Thanksgiving started yesterday.
For the past two years, my son-in-law Jason has enlisted family and friends to cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner that’s served on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at the local soup kitchen.
Last year, Jason had me scooping cranberry sauce onto the trays as they were passed along. I splattered it here and there and I noticed that cranberries weren’t on the menu this year.
HHHHMMMHH!
Now it’s Thanksgiving Day – a fun day for me.
When I get up, I will pray and read my Bible. Then, write an Interruption. A walk and lifting weights will follow. In the afternoon, it’s over to my daughter Emily’s house for a family Thanksgiving dinner. Our dinners are out-of-control chaos that everyone enjoys.
Also, a football game, where I will fall asleep in a recliner.
I smile a lot on Thanksgiving Day — and perhaps snore a bit during my nap.
I’m thankful that I have a wonderful wife, three children, two great sons-in-law, and six grandchildren, and we will be together.
For the past several years, during my devotions on Thanksgiving Day, I thank God for His grace and mercy. I often share my personal definition of grace and mercy in this blog, but let’s review . . .
- Grace: God gives us what we don’t deserve.
- Mercy: God withholds what we do deserve.
Grace and mercy must form the foundation for all our thanksgiving.
If we consider our blessings the result of our own efforts, that attitude and the subsequent actions based upon this inherent pride will whittle away our lives to the point that we won’t be grateful for anything.
Just bitter and despairing at our lot in life. Because that’s the result of a life without thanksgiving to God.
Thanksgiving is supernatural. I don’t think we can rise above trials and tribulations without a healthy dose of Jesus, Who died for our sins and forgave us, and someday we will be in heaven with Him and our families.
What a joy, that first Thanksgiving in heaven with my Mom and Dad (already there) and others that I know and love.
Happy Thanksgiving — today and through Jesus, in eternity too.