Thankful

"Give thanks" that's what the bible says about life. "Give thanks in all things."  All things Lord? What does that mean? Surely it doesn't mean thanks for the pain or the loss or the grief over an injustice. How can that be from a loving God who wants only good things for his creation? Can that really be true? All things?

What is the answer to my life's questions? More of God in my life. More Jesus, more love, more learning how to roll around in the deep with the maker of my days and not struggle under the weight of the waves that are crashing upon me. More of raising my eyes unto the hills and knowing where my help comes from. My help comes from the Lord. Becoming thankful for all things because I gave God my life. My life is his to do with as he will. To be thankful all of these days, thankful brings witness to grace and grace brings ease of assurance that I am in his hands. Thankfulness is the key to open me to more grace from Gods storehouse of love. It opens the flood gates for the spirit of love to reside in my eyes. That I may see the many gifts he has given. From the light upon the wings of a thousand birds landing in a field to the droplets of rain on a window pane I have eyes to see these things. I have ears to hear the gentle snoring of my loved one beside me, to the sounds of Mozart in the air where I reside, to the laughter of my 86 year old Father who is still with me on this earth. Ears to hear the gifts. To know that my very breath this morning has come from his love and I can know this and feel thankful. I am on a quest to see the grace around me, to know the hand that feeds me, to hear the voice that gently calls my name in the third watch of the night. I am hunger and I am thirst and there is no quenching the fire apart from the grace of thanksgiving. There is no filling of the wine or the breaking of the bread inside the challis of my life with him, apart from thanksgiving. I see lack and he see's plenty. I feel fear and he is faith, I wander and he waits. Only the grace of his presence restores me to sanity again.
I am thankful this morning, this Thanksgiving morning, for the many gifts of his grace. For the wisdom to know that the answer to everything empty and lost is thanksgiving for the one who brings life and heals wounds and bears sin upon a broken body made whole. I am thankful for the table of love that I will be seated at, with loved ones new and old that have brought grace into a tempus storm. On this amazing grace morning I can only raise my eyes to the dawns early light and see the wonder of the gift and say "thanks" in a hushed tone of one long waiting for the answer to the pain. It has been there all the time I wandered lost and weary. The answer is thankful. The answer is grace in thanksgiving. The answer is in the eyes that see.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see.