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Thanksgiving 2019

As I am here in a warm and dry house, listening to the sounds of kids and grandkids somewhere downstairs, and enjoying the aroma of cooking food, I am reminded that we are blessed with family first, and then sufficient wealth and situation to enjoy this day with each other.

We often take these times and these opportunities for granted - as another year, another day, another meal like those that have gone before and for which we plan for next year. And so it goes. It is too easy to move from day to day and year to year.

And yet we know the years don't just move into later years. This year, our extended family and many of our friends will mark this day with remembered loss - with empty space in hearts and homes where loved ones were just last year - maybe even just last month. I would attempt to list those we will be without but I would undoubtedly miss one or two who wouldn't come to mind. And that is the point of this day - to not forget the lives, the loves, the blessings we have and that we do yet enjoy - and take for granted much of the rest of our lives. 

There remains not just the remembering but the being thankful for these same lives and loves. Thankful for the blessings they have been and they remain - even though we are bereft of them. And that is the heart of remembering on days like this - to be thankful. In remembering to be thankful and in being thankful, to call to mind the blessings we have had and which oddly enough, remain with us. 

We find that we are dependent on each other for blessings, for loves, for presences of each other. We lift our eyes past these to the One who gives life itself, who brings rain and sun on all, who has created us to be His image and who invites us into Life with Him even now. We remind ourselves as we look around at the human blessings He has provided for us, the accompanying animals, and the inanimate devices and tools that make our lives easier and blessed that we would not - yea could not be who we are without them. If we are anything, it is because of those who have walked with us, spoken into us, and have shaped our very lives to this very moment. The Creator God has given them to us - and us to them.

This Thanksgiving, may we all look around and see. See the blessings, the lives, and the loves we have and have had - those that have come to us from the Father of Lights who asks us for not much more than to bless each other. 

This Thanksgiving, I trust the Lord of All is working in your lives, in your hearts, and in those around you to remember, to bless, and in so doing to give thanks for all who are in your lives. I thank Him for each of you; thank you for being who you are.

Blessings to each and all.

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