Be Thankful!

I was watching a holiday movie the other night where in one scene, the older Mom is working on a project with her visiting grown daughter, when the daughter comments that the traditional family activity that they were involved with reminded her of her Dad who had passed a few years before.  Then after a moments hesitation, she softly asked her Mom if there are things that reminded her of him as well, and without a second thought, the Mom replies, “I see your Father in everything!”

At the time, I was sitting on the leather couch with the dog comfortably snuggled up against me with his head on my leg and I immediately raised up my left arm with a closed fist and exclaimed, “I hear ya there Sister!”  The dog lifted his head and looked up at me, and as I patted him gently, I told him with a tearful nod, that I too see Piper in everything… especially as the Holiday Season has come upon us.

In many respects this Holiday Season seems to be harder than was the first one without Piper.  As I looked back to the end of the last year, I realized that I was in shock during the Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations since it had only been a few months since Piper’s homegoing.  I had spent Thanksgiving alone with the pooch and then was able to fly to Oklahoma to spend the Christmas week with three of our four children.

Don’t get me wrong in that I had a wonderful time with our children and can’t imagine going through that first Christmas minus Piper, without the loving support of our kids surrounding me.  But this year… I have had a lot more time to think about it, have had a lot more time to experience the emptiness that has settled into the pit of my heart without hearing Piper’s familiar voice, see the familiar smile that would instantly melt my heart on a daily basis and feel her love in the encouragement of the words that regularly flowed from her sweet lips.

But much growth has also occurred over the year since her passing.  I moved to Oklahoma, purchased a beautiful new home into which I am moving next week, have found a wonderful church, and get to spend time weekly with our kids, their spouses and our granddaughter! 

So, what more can I say on this Thanksgiving Day?  I suddenly understood this morning as I was studying in my Bible, just how good the Lord has been to me… not only through the hardships of the last few years… but throughout ALL of my life!  I had to put down my Bible, grab my notebook and jot down that “I am thankful for all the marvelous, wonderous and miraculous things that God has done in my life… things like my joyful upbringing, my outrageously wonderful life for 48 yeas with Piper, our children, our granddaughters, Piper’s and my ministry together, seeing our adult children’s accomplishments and lives of faith, my new house and for my new future!”

Picking back up my Bible I read from the end of 1Timothy were the Apostle Paul is encouraging his son in the Lord Timothy… and as you read this right now, personalize it by inserting your own name and pray it as a declaration of your faith for this Holiday Season and for the upcoming New Year as well, saying:

“But I, ________, as a man or women of God: Run for my life from all this. I choose today, to pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy.  And to run hard and fast in the faith. To seize the eternal life, the life I was called to, the life I so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.” (I Timothy 11-12 MSG)

Sure, my life has changed drastically.  It has turned a direction that I, in my wildest dreams, would have never imagined.  But my extreme comfort and joy comes from the FACT that HE hasn’t changed.  Hebrews 13:8 tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (God’s Word ©) His Word is just as powerful and just as truthful for me… and for you, as it was yesterday, is for you and me today and will be into our futures! 

Colossians 3:15 tells us to “let the peace of God rule in your hearts… and be thankful.”  So, I choose on this THANKSGIVING DAY… and I pray that you will as well… to let His peace rule or be the “umpire” in my life as Robertson’s Word Pictures defines the word “rule” in this verse, and be THANKFUL for all the things that God has and will continue to do in my life!

How About you?

Have a blessed, fun and enjoyable THANKSGIVING today as you celebrate with family, friends or even if it’s just you… for you’re never alone with HIM, for HE is ALWAYS at your side!

-       Jim