It seems like many people have already moved on from Thanksgiving and have started anticipating Christmas. While I certainly love Christmas, I wanted to linger on the Thanksgiving season for one last blog. I wanted to submit my list of Thanksgiving blessings - a portion of it anyway. I had a list of 12 items, but to share them all would take two blogs and I don’t want to belabor this. So I’ve decided to share 6 with you.
Health – I have encountered various health challenges since 2015 (when my life changed forever because of my dad’s passing). Acute sicknesses like migraine headaches, flu symptoms, and a recent upper respiratory infection, are just a few examples. On one Thanksgiving blog, I expressed how thankful I was for the ability to speak because, for a time, I had lost my voice. It’s not that I had never been sick before 2015, but I certainly have learned, with each passing day, that health is a marvelous and fragile gift.
Automobile: It is amazing for me to contemplate that I have put almost 155,000 miles on my current car! It’s far from pristine at this point, but what a gift to be able to get from point A to point B.
Assignment: I think I’ve told you that my dad used to thank me for taking care of my mom when we returned from an afternoon of errands or something that like. Today I take that phrase as part of my marching orders. I am thankful to be able to take care of my mom; for one reason because I love her, but also because I know Dad would want me to do so since I witnessed just how devoted he was to her.
Superheroes: Stan Lee once wrote, “I think people are fascinated by superheroes because when we were young we all liked fairy tales, and fairy tales are stories of people with superpowers, people who are super in some way – giants, witches, magicians, always people who are bigger than life. Well, as we got older, we outgrew fairy tales…but I don’t think we outgrow our love for those kinds of stories…so superhero stories, to me, are like fairy tales for grown-ups. I don’t know why, but the human condition is such that we love reading about people who can do things we can’t do and who have powers we wish we had.” (From the work What is a superhero? edited by Robin S. Rosenberg and Peter Coogan; chapter 17 of the book, written by Stan Lee)
God’s miracles in my life: I recently shared an article that my mom wrote about how God healed me as a baby from a horrible malady. I’m so thankful for that episode. But there have been more miraculous events in my life than just that one. These occurrences have significantly shaped me and molded me as a person; I’m grateful to the Lord for His divine intervention.
New mercies from God each day: The great old hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness states, “Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided; great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.” In another stanza, these words are given: “Pardon for sin, and a peace that endureth; Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow; blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.” I’m thankful for God’s mercies that fall fresh on me every day. And I’m thankful that when you write out your gratitude list, you eventually realize that the snowball is just getting bigger and bigger. You begin to understand that for all the blessings you’ve listed, there are so many more; it really is “blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.”
Kevin
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