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For most of my life, I’ve lived in the United States. Wasn’t born here, but it has become my home, so it might be imagined that my writing of thanksgiving revolves around that annual celebration on the fourth Thursday of November. Not so. While there’s lots to be said for commemorating a trip across an ocean, safe landing, being welcomed rather than attacked, and much great food, there’s much more involved in the giving of thanks.
My wonderful Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, fully 2,662 pages long, partially describes being thankful as “thoughtful, contented; conscious of benefit received and kindly disposed to the benefactor; grateful; well pleased.”
In that context, my being thankful boils down to having the Lord in my life. Why is that? Because before I said “yes” to Him, I wasn’t contented. Before I reciprocated His offer of a relationship, I may have been conscious of benefits received but, because everything I received was first leveraged for maximum return – “If I do this for Margret, she’ll have to do that.” – I could never really say I was kindly disposed to the benefactor.
And contented? Give me a break! When one is contented, our friend Webster tells us, we are “easy in mind; satisfied especially with [our] lot in life.” I was not. But one day I accepted that there was Someone who loved me unconditionally. This everywhere, every when God could not be surprised, therefore was never disappointed in me. I came to understand that He wanted the best for me and had given His life so I could live now, increasingly healthier and of better character; and later, forever with Him. Best of all, I would never be abandoned. That’s when I started to trust, and then to heal from the emotional wounds of my past.
So, in these 20 years, have I been “conscious of benefits received and kindly disposed to the benefactor?” Very much so. But life has not always been easy. Have I had struggles? Big time. Have I been frightened? Oh, yes. Have I wondered what’s waiting around the corner? Often. Yet even as I thought and felt those things, I still knew I was loved. In fact, it was Divine Love that carried me through. Instead of putting up a front that strengthened the walls of my emotional cloister, I could allow myself to be transparent and vulnerable, bravely tackling things that demeaned me and others.
Knowing He continues to love me unconditionally gives me the courage to not just survive, but also to thrive. As one rendition of Paul’s declaration to the believers in Philippi states:
I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want. I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]. – Philippians 4:12,13, Amplified Bible
In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade.” – 2 Corinthians 2:14, The Message
So, yeah, there are lots of reasons to be thankful, and even to have hope, which we’ll talk about next week. Until then, all of Heaven’s best to you and yours!
all of Heaven’s best,
Margret Boyd
Scribe of Heaven
(Matthew 13:51,52)
