“Be thankful in all
circumstances.
This is what God wants from you
in your life in union with Christ Jesus.”
(I
Thessalonians 5:18 – Good News
Bible)
Well my wife and I sure had something to be thankful for
over the weekend. Our good friends
Luther, his fiancée Kristina and her two fun loving children flew in from Denver ,
Colorado
Kristina’s two children William and Jane absolutely loved
our pooch and played continuously with her for almost three hours. The only time that Mandie got a little
confused is when the kids broke out their new stuffed animals and didn’t want
her to run off and play with them as well!
The icing on the cake came for me when they shooed me out of
the kitchen and prepared a scrumptious meal of Luther’s famous home made
enchiladas! It was an incredible
meal! (and, I am not usually that fond of Mexican food!) I had to admit to them that I could hardly
remember the last time we had a home cooked meal that I hadn’t prepared! Like I said it was great, and then got even
better as they did all the dishes and even took out the garbage! Wow… what a treat! (What
friendship!)
Luther and his first wife had worked quite closely with
Piper and I for many years at the zenith of our Children’s Church days back in
the 1990’s and early 2000’s. They were
terrific team players and quickly became a major force in our support team, as
well as close personal friends. It got
to the point where it was like Luther knew what I needed before I even knew it! The last all-church Halloween
carnival/meal/program event that we worked on together went off like a
dream! We were a fantastic team and it
was really hard to see them go when a promotion with Luther’s work sent them
back to his home in Colorado .
We had the pleasure of meeting Kristina and her kids a
couple of years ago when they came to California
for a visit. She is definitely a jewel
and just the right person for Luther.
William and Jane are also great and like I said earlier, fun loving
kids. I don’t think that I have ever seen our
dog so exhausted after they left! After
talking about how much we enjoyed the visit of our friends, my wife and I sat
down on the love seat and Mandie immediately made room for herself beside Piper
(half on Piper’s lap and half on the arm
of the couch!) and fell fast asleep!
I Thessalonians 5:18
says to be thankful in all circumstances, and yesterday’s visit was one of
those easy times to be thankful and we continued to rejoice this morning. In fact, I had joked with Luther that I was
going to have the leftover enchiladas for breakfast with eggs today, so I took
a picture of the leftovers with a carton of eggs, a box of pancake mix, a
bottle of syrup, a cup of coffee and a container of Piper’s Boost and text it
off to him with a note of thanks!
There are other circumstances in life though, that may not
always be too easy to be thankful in.
But that is where the little but all important phrase “your life in union with Christ Jesus”
comes into play. By ourselves, we could
never have the strength or ability or “want-to”
to be thankful when the “not so good
things” happen to us. But a life
lived “in union with Christ Jesus” is
a life that is fortified with His strength and His ability and most importantly,
His
LOVE! And it is that LOVE that
He has for us and that we have for Him that helps us to trust Him enough to
bring us through the tough times.
So while Piper and I are thankful and rejoice over the good
times of fellowshipping with our friends yesterday, maybe some of you need to
release a “not so good event” in your
lives over to Him, become thankful in that He will work to fix and heal the
hurts and then turn it around for
your advantage! Remember, “in all these things we are MORE than conquerors
through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37 – KJV).
Have a terrific week Stay in
tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… What
am I expecting today?”
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