Deb and I celebrated Thanksgiving with two of her cousins and their spouses in Myrtle Beach. Food and fellowship were so great that we never even took time to walk the Beach! The three cousins reminiscing speculated that it had been 40+ years since they had set around the same Thanksgiving table. This came on the heels of daughter Stephanie’s November 11 wedding where we were blessed with spending time with my Nebraska sisters and some of their children and their families for the first time in four years. We also got to meet Son-in-law Steve’s family. Then Deb threw me a birthday party shortly after we got back that included good food, wonderful carrot cake from Carter’s Bakery, and several of our good friends.
I am feeling thankful and blest for fellowship with good friends and family this season.
On the other hand, when I see pictures of the rubble in Ukraine that was once a house with amenities similar to ours my heart aches for the families that once celebrated their holidays there. I think of the new friends I have met this year living on the streets in the New Bern corridor. The water doesn’t seem to easily flow into their dishwasher and the thermostat doesn’t keep them very warm these days.
I think, “there by the grace of God go I.”
I am a sinner like we all are, so I don’t know why God chose to birth me into the family my Mom and Dad had going instead of a Ukrainian family. I have built a lot of things but I can’t build back everything Putin has torn down and I can’t provide a room for everyone I have met on New Bern Ave.
But from a thankful heart I can praise God for the blessings bestowed on me and I can identify those that God has put in my path so that I might be God’s ambassador to them. I can give of my time, talents, and resources to bless others from the abundance of my blessings.
The challenge lies in living that action plan out so it blesses the one who has blessed me. If others are blest and cared for in a way that any person can read my life and come to understand the God’s Good News in it, including the pathway of salvation that leads to eternal life in God’s presence paid for through the life and death of Jesus, it blesses God. My own salvation ranks as something that I am even more thankful for than good times and good turkey!