GRATITUDE 233 A year of Thanksgiving...My Reflections

I'm up early this morning to boil eggs, mash sweet potatoes, and make sure my turkey is happily brine-ing away.  My heart has been excited for this day all week.  Excited to celebrate with a few folks who are more like family than friends.  Excited to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with my kids, to break out the karaoke machine (YEP!), and excited to eat one of our favorite spreads of the year.

But more than those fun things, my heart has been excited for this day because it feels like an apex to my year of gratitude.  Rather than a day that jolts me out of my INGRATITUDE and startles me with the call to THANKSGIVING,  this day feels like I've reached a climax of sorts.  For a long time I have lived  a life of INGRATITUDE and this day felt awkward, my thanksgiving almost forced.

But God, by his grace, has given me such a gift in showing me his command to give thanks in all things, at all times.  This year I've slowly trudged my way out of the valley of ingratitude and made my way up the mountain of thanksgiving...and the views have been spectacular.  I've seen things in the light of his love and my heart has become tender by what I have seen.  Yes, through giving thanks each day and in as many circumstances as I could, my heart has been softened and humbled as my heart has finally recognized my good Father's lavish, loving care of me.

Yes, thanksgiving has been the rappelling rope that's pulled me out of the valley of ingratitude and connected me to my Father's heart.  As I have scaled this mountain, here's a glimpse of what I have seen:

God's command to give thanks is about living in the light of his loving presence.  Yes we should give thanks for what he does each day to care for us, as we are indebted to him for every.single.thing. we have - from the breath I just took, to the food I eat, to the relationships I enjoy.  But more than doing what we "should" do, God calls us to gratitude because he wants us to SEE CLEARLY his heart as a giver.  He loves to give. He gives lavishly, most fully seen in our salvation.  When I stay in my valley of ingratitude I don't see the gifts for what they are, and more than that, I don't recognize that I have a good, kind, tender Father who loves to lavish his children with good things.

So for me, this year has been about naming gifts, but more than that, it's been about scaling the mountain into the light of his presence, drawing closer to his heart by the rappelling rope of gratitude.

And in the difficult parts of my life, I have chosen to give thanks...because God calls me, yes.  But more than that, these are really some of my most precious gifts.  As God promises in his Word, the difficult parts of life (the suffering, the dying) are what brings new life, being formed into Christ's image (the resurrection) and makes me more ABLE to love enjoy him, the greatest gift....so in suffering I give thanks because those are my most precious gifts, severe though they my feel.  My Father loves me so much that he doesn't stop with the smaller gifts of life and food and friends but goes so far as to SAVE me and then through the suffering kills my old man and makes my new man come alive...alive to his presence, which is in fact the greatest gift.  Yes, enjoying his presence is the greatest gift!

So today, I will eat my turkey and stuffing on top of the mountain of gratitude.  The view from here is spectacular, folks.  God's heart for me and his presence have never been seen so clearly as they are from this crisp, clear view.

God, through his call to thanksgiving in all circumstance,s is calling us all to see him clearly from the top the mountain!!  Isn't the view amazing?