There is much for me to be thankful for this year. The turkey meal for one turned out quite well, in spite of the fact that our girls were not home early enough to help with much of the baking and cooking! (They both flew home late Wednesday, Lauren from St. Louis and Kathryn from Chicago.) Turkey was moist--tried a smoked turkey this time--and the side dishes were a hit. We had dessert galore with an ameretto ricotta cheesecake from Lauren, tipsy angel food cake from Pauline (our young seminary friend), and the must-haves of apple and pumpkin pies!
I am thankful most of all for my God, who has kept and loved me and my family all through the year and the years before, and will continue to do so in the years to come. It is comforting to wake up each morning, assured that I am in the palm of a loving and powerful God, knowing that no matter what unfolds during the day, He is with me to sustain and to guide.
I am thankful for my husband who drives me batty in many ways but whose love and faithfulness I have been able to count on through the years. We embarked on our empty-nesting journey this September and are enjoying our time sans les filles.
I am thankful for our daughters: our college graduate whose love for the children she mentors inspires me, and our college freshman who has dived into collegiate life with her usual oomph and enthusiasm.
I am thankful for my mother whose love still warms me from across the miles. I am grateful that she is in relatively good health, having given us quite a scare late this summer.
I am thankful for my friends, young and old, near and far. This summer I was able to connect with college friends whom I've not seen in many years. And this weekend, a high school friend popped in for a visit! I look forward each week to the time of bible study, prayer and laughter with my Dallas friends. My seminary friends keep me young and connected.
I am thankful for my professors at the seminary, for their inspiring and dedicated teaching. What a privilege it is to be able to study Systematic Theology with Sinclair Ferguson or the Pentateuch with Douglas Gropp. I don't have to worry too much about getting Alzheimer's as they challenge my grey cells with the rigor and profundity of their courses!
I am thankful that from the pulpit this Thanksgiving Sunday, I heard the reading and preaching of one of my favorite passages in Scripture. I leave you now with Luke 2:21-35,
And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
