Thanksgiving is coming

The weather reports say that we are supposed to get snow off and on for most of the week. I might have a white Thanksgiving this year. I suppose I should appreciate the potential of a snowy holiday because I will be spending Christmas back home where it has been in the upper 70s and 80s. I highly doubt that there will be any snow on Christmas! I have been listening to Christmas music for the past few days anyway, so I'll just pretend that it is the Christmas season already. I received an invitation to go to someone's house on Thursday just now as I was writing about how I anticipated an uneventful Thanksgiving, so perhaps the Christmas season will have to wait a few more days. Anyway, I set out to make this my official Thanksgiving post, so I will commence my thoughts for the holiday.

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." ~ I Thessalonians 5:16-18

"Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen." ~ "A General Thanksgiving," The Book of Common Prayer

In everything give thanks. I fail at this one. I do not often give thanks for being set to a task that demands my best efforts. I am thinking of that paper that I am working on and just how thankful I have been that I have the opportunity to write it. Not very. Giving thanks for disappointments and failures? Not natural for me, either. It is much easier to set aside one day to be grateful and do our duty as American Christians to direct our feelings of thankfulness (that's the American duty) toward God (that's the Christian's version of the duty), but that is not God's will for me. God's will is along the lines of at all times and in all places and in all things. Really this is part of ascribing to God the glory that He is due, another 24-7 job.

Where we draw our illustrations is telling. I find myself thinking of the hymns we sang at church growing up. Sometimes I love the songs and other times I think they are completely cheesy, but even the cheesy ones can be amazingly rich in their simplicity. One of those songs that I find richly cheesy is "Count Your Blessings".
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
That's really what this is all about. It is about counting the blessing that we have, and allowing ourselves to be amazed by God's goodness to us. That is the essense of giving thanks. So I will count some of my blessings, knowing that any list that I create will only scratch the surface. I know that there are many things for which I should be very thankful that I am not even aware of at this time. But I know of these (in no particular order!):

1. Whittier Hills Baptist Church - representative of my own spiritual heritage and so much more
2. Placerita Baptist Church - where I learned to be an adult in the church body
3. First Baptist of Johnson City - my church home now and hopefully for some time to come
4. My friends - for those who understand me and delight me and have helped me grow
5. My family - no family is perfect, but I appreciate mine very much
6. Material provision - I know no lack and never have
7. My dog back home - I consider him and the other pets I have had in the past to be real blessings
8. My travels - I have been many places and appreciate those opportunities - I am a different person because of these experiences and am glad that I took advantage of them
9. My education - while it is hard to be thankful in the thick of it, I have had great opportunities that many only dream of, and that is no small matter
10. Being a child of God - the greatest blessing of them all!
11. The things I like to take for granted - the ability to see color, relatively good health, the ability to walk, music, clothes that keep me warm, modern technology
12. Silly things that make a difference to me - my many varieties of tea, learning to knit, modified pilates exercises, candles to make my apartment smell inviting, having a great cookbook at my disposal...

I am thankful for these things and many others. God has done great things for me, and although I ignore them all too often, I acknowledge them now on this Thanksgiving.

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." ~ I Timothy 1:17