The Thanksgiving Five
A day late this week, so that I could post on the holy day itself. Five things I'm thankful for, in no particular order:
1. Wrestling with the boys this morning. Their giggles and delight made my lazy butt happy.
2. The all-pervading presence of a loving God. I think that as Western Christians, it's particularly hard for us to come to grips with God's love. We either: a)equate his love with juridical mercy (as in, wow, he loves us so much we're not getting what we deserve), or b)turn his love into that of a feel-good benevolent benefactor. In both cases, we fail to know God's love as it really is, and so we end up clinging to a distorted view of God.
3. My grandfather's life. Yesterday he was hit by a large truck, totaled his car, and had to be extracted using the Jaws Of Life. He's an 88 year old cancer patient who I imagined would die one night in his sleep. The idea of him dying from a car crash brings home how near death is to all of us. Fortunately, he is lucid with only "minor" injuries. He's banged up, to be sure, and broke his shoulder. But, he is not dead.
4. Earplugs. I don't know how I'd get any sleep without them.
5. My husband's skills. (Right now I'm thinking about the perfect cup of coffee I'm drinking, but there's more than that.)
1. Wrestling with the boys this morning. Their giggles and delight made my lazy butt happy.
2. The all-pervading presence of a loving God. I think that as Western Christians, it's particularly hard for us to come to grips with God's love. We either: a)equate his love with juridical mercy (as in, wow, he loves us so much we're not getting what we deserve), or b)turn his love into that of a feel-good benevolent benefactor. In both cases, we fail to know God's love as it really is, and so we end up clinging to a distorted view of God.
3. My grandfather's life. Yesterday he was hit by a large truck, totaled his car, and had to be extracted using the Jaws Of Life. He's an 88 year old cancer patient who I imagined would die one night in his sleep. The idea of him dying from a car crash brings home how near death is to all of us. Fortunately, he is lucid with only "minor" injuries. He's banged up, to be sure, and broke his shoulder. But, he is not dead.
4. Earplugs. I don't know how I'd get any sleep without them.
5. My husband's skills. (Right now I'm thinking about the perfect cup of coffee I'm drinking, but there's more than that.)