Thought for the Week
Thanksgiving Day
Psalm 23
This year Thanksgiving Day hits different. Many spend it alone or with a seat or two around our tables now empty that in the recent past held loved ones. We claim to “have this hope that burns within our hearts” yet many days we struggle to keep our eyes on that Hope. I hear some people saying “We should be thankful every day.” They’re right—but there’s also something incredibly special about setting one day aside where we set our differences aside and focus our attention on the blessings and goodness around us from God. Thanksgiving isn’t beautiful in spite of it only happening once a year, but because it happens once a year.
We anticipate a day with growing anticipation where Christ will seat us at a table—in the presence of our enemies. We each have people we don’t like, yet perhaps we wouldn’t call them enemies. What does that even look like? The reality is we will be so overwhelmed with God’s goodness that we won’t be able to help but live in celebration, healed from the pain we’ve inflicted and experienced by Sin while on earth. Yet today, we are surrounded by God’s goodness and keeping our eyes on Him is a struggle. My prayer for this community is that we can have His eyes that see the gifts in each [flawed,] [hurting,] [and broken] person around us and treat them as we have been treated. In a time of such aggressive division, God has still sent His Holy Spirit to transform each heart—and spoiler alert you aren’t perfected yet. His hand is still at work, we have that to be thankful for because many of us have made the same mistakes for years and yet He still invites us to be seated at the table and be fed, blessed, and know we belong together.
Much love,
Pastor Blake