Not your Typical Thanksgiving List

Here in Germany the temperatures are slowly dropping, the wind in blowing,  the fall-colored leaves are falling and there is that moist dampness with a hint of fermented apple smell in the air that reminds us that winter is fast approaching.

Enjoying a walk in the Black Forest with Sigrid a good friend visiting from Austria

As I sit here in the quiet of my cozy home in the still dark morning hours before the house awakens to a new busy day, my thoughts turn to the theme of thanksgiving and the preparations for next week. 

Menu planning, who will cook what, which table decorations… Will dad be out of the hospital and able to come? The absence of our college kids, … how we will miss having them here. What “thanksgiving thought” will we share?

I begin to think back over this past year and the many life changes that will be represented in the group that will be gathered here on thanksgiving day; many exciting changes, some hard, some scary, and yes, some very challenging.

It is easy for me to thank for all the good things, and there have been so many of those this year. 

Got to join Phil in South Africa last week for his OSWW staff retreat

But what about all those things that were not so easy… plans that turned out differently from what I had hoped for, those unanswered questions, unending challenges, mountains that seem insurmountable, battles of my mind, disappointments, and perhaps the letting go of dreams…what about those?  Do I give thanks for those?

I read a quote by Spurgeon this morning that really spoke to me:

“ There is no greater mercy that I know on earth than good health, except it be sickness; and that has often been a greater mercy to me than health…. It is a good thing to be without a trouble, but it is a better thing to have a trouble and know how to get grace enough to bear it.”

Rough waters on cap Agulhas ( the southern most tip of Africa)

I breathe a sigh of relief… yes, that is it.  That is what I am truly thankful for… the knowing that there is someone who provides “grace enough to bear it” … and not just for me, but for my family, friends, the children I think of because of our work in Africa, whom I carry in my heart.

So I pick up my pen and continue writing my “list of thanksgiving” for the things present in my life that are not your typical thanksgiving items, but are items for which I know God has given me, given you, given them ... grace enough to bear.

 

Phil's OSWW team confronting the  massive challenge of Africa's marginalized children

Dad recovering after his heart surgery