Thanksgiving feels different this year.
In the middle of the outward “sameness” of sights and smells and tastes and sounds, this Thanksgiving is profoundly different.
The normal list of things I’m thankful for – family, friends, circumstances – has shifted, as if I’m putting on x-ray vision goggles that look beneath the surface of the obvious.
As my eyes adjust to the new view, the things that were always there, but blurry, are coming into focus.
Like a child who has just put on their first pair of much needed glasses, I find my heart sitting with a mouth-half-open smile, contentedly just taking it all in.
Today my list of thankfulness would look something like this:
– I am thankful for dreams that came disguised as nightmares.
– I am thankful for a released grip that led to open hands to receive the surprises that God had in mind all along.
– I am thankful for the inspiration of friends who have or are facing disease with such faith, grace and grit.
– I am thankful for the strangers who have become friends and the friends who have become family.
– I am thankful for the uncertainties that grew faith and the difficulties that increased strength.
– I am thankful for the spiritual surgery that led to healing.
– I am thankful that God never leaves things undone.
– I am thankful for modern day miracles, so subtle that I have to look for them with eyes wide open.
(And, of course, family, friends and circumstances. 🙂 )
The list could go on for days. Because as vision is corrected, perspective grows more eternal, with no bounds, no ceiling on its potential.
Thanksgiving feels different this year.
And for that, I am so very thankful. 🙂
Psalm 95:1-7
1 Chronicles 16:34
Psalm 100:4
1 Timothy 4:4-5
