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Thanksgiving Day is always a special time to spend as a family. I will be with a large portion of my physical family today. Yet I remember creating, with my Venezuelan family, our own version of a Thanksgiving meal while I lived in Venezuela.
I know that many have not had the same blessing that I have had of a family that supports and loves each other. We are far from perfect. But we strive to share in the loving support that is best found in the context of family.
I give thanks to God for my family—my parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers-in-law, nephew, niece, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. And I give thanks to God for my family in Christ that spans the world.
As Philip Yancey and Henri Nouwen put it...
“Family is the one human institution we have no choice over. We get in simply by being born, and as a result we are involuntarily thrown together with a menagerie of strange and unlike people. Church calls for another step: to voluntarily choose to band together with a strange menagerie because of a common bond in Jesus Christ. I have found that such a community more resembles a family than any other human institution. Henri Nouwen once defined a community as “a place where the person you least want to live with always lives.” His definition applies equally to the group that gathers each Thanksgiving and the group that congregates each Sunday morning. (p. 64-65, Church: Why Bother?)”
― Philip Yancey, Church: Why Bother?: My Personal Pilgrimage
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Thankful for His Faithful Promises
Written by Erica Peck
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100
One of the phrases I find myself most praying when talking to God is “and thank you for your faithful promises.” I am SO thankful that He calls me daughter (1 John 3:1). He has called me by name (Rev 3:5). It is written on the palm of His hand. I am His (Isaiah 43:1). He will never leave me, or forsake me (Joshua 1:5). Instead, He faithfully promises to carry my burdens (Matt. 11:28-30). He’s already gone on ahead of me (but not without leaving me a faithful counselor (John 14:26)) to go and prepare a place for me—in His eternal home (John 14:3). He waits for me with arms open wide, and my homecoming will be precious to Him (Ps. 116:15).
Even as I write these words and am reminded of His faithful promises once again, it brings tears to my eyes because of how much He loves me. He wants me. And I am His. These are only a handful of the faithful promises He gives us. We have much to be thankful for.
So, let us come before him today with gladness, joyful songs of praise and thanksgiving, knowing that the love and faithfulness of our LORD endures forever, and continues through all generations.