Well, tomorrow is another Thanksgiving Day. Strange that it has come so quickly this year. More evidence of the passage of time, and as always, a good opportunity to reflect on what we have that we really don’t deserve.
We have so many blessings, especially living in the land of excess and, dare I say it–greed?!? Many, not all, I realize, but many of us have so much more than we need. Yet the ads scream, “Buy me, buy me, too!”, and we somehow feel like we must oblige, and dash out to take advantage of the deals on items we never even dreamed of needing. I admit that I have scanned the ads more than I’d like to say, in search of two items that we need to replace. But even with the great deals, I feel reticent to join the masses who follow stuff. I frankly do not want to participate in the “gotta-have-the latest-thing craze”. Will I go out to get the item we need, at probably the lowest price of the year? Maybe. But if I do, I will do it with a little bit of disgust over how I am a pawn in the game that someone else controls. Hmmm….not a nice picture.
How does this fit into my post about blessings? I got a bit sidetracked, but there is a connection. I always feel like Thanksgiving never gets its proper place in the holiday order of importance, mostly since it’s hard to commercialize something like gratitude to God. Oh, they try; don’t get me wrong. Turkey this, cranberry that, but Thanksgiving in its very name is filled with all that is good and right, and so I don’t want to treat it as a necessary bump between candy and costume holiday and the biggest commercial thrust of the year! I like to really focus on what God has done for us, and especially to pay attention to the simple blessings. Of all the holidays, I think that Thanksgiving retains more of the true spirit of our relation to God–that of gratitude.
The Pilgrims had come through a horribly trying first winter, and barely survived. Yet, they chose to stay, they chose to endure, and when the tide turned for them, the made the choice to thank God for how He preserved and provided for them. There is a lesson for us in this. We will go through horribly trying things, and sometimes we will barely survive emotionally. Yet these events won’t be all that we will experience. In the midst of the hard times, we will have blessings–friends, family, flowers, our pets– small and big tokens of God’s love and the reminder that we may gather the roses in spite of their thorns.
We remember our blessings in different ways. Last year it was the blessing tree, this year the boys wanted to make woven placemats again. I like having what we’ve created from Thanksgivings past to read over. These memories encourage and inspire us. I didn’t take a picture of the placemats yet, because they’re still a work in progress. We plan to take them to our Thanksgiving gathering and have everyone list on theirs their personal thanksgivings. Then we’ll laminate them and use them!
The photos are a collection of simple things that we thank God for which we’ve enjoyed this Fall. The first is a collection from a fun farm day with Uncle Jimmy and our friends. Family and friends are wonderful blessings!
The next photos reflect the beautiful colors of Autumn, and the last show how quickly we are marching towards Winter! We enjoy something about each season. The beauty of the white wonderland deserves our admiration almost as much as the glory of Autumn! Truly He has made everything beautiful in His time!
Happy Thanksgiving!
🙂
Lessons...and lessons 