It's November - the month we all try to express our gratefulness for the many blessings in our life. Usually my blog and my personal facebook feed is filled with daily posts of thanksgiving. This year, the month just snuck up on me. I think it was the 4th day of the month when I saw the first gratitude post by someone else in my facebook feed. Oops! It wasn't on my radar at all this year.
It isn't that I'm not grateful. I am keenfully aware of all the blessings in my life. But I am also touched this year by those who are suffering. At this moment, I have two friends sitting in ICU hospital rooms with their children. Each dealing with a sudden, unexpected injury or sickness. I also have two friends who were recently widowed on my mind. They are all grieving and their holidays will not look the same this year.
I am so thankful for my family, our home, our health. I know it is so tenuous. Like Job, who had everything, and lost it all in one terrible day. And I have to wonder, do I have their faith? How will I react if and when tragedy and pain strikes my life? Will I have God's peace, His strength, His grace to walk through the painfully dreadful days?
I hope so. I pray so. I am thankful, but I am not flippant. I know it could change in just one breath, with the ring of a phone or a fever that suddenly spikes. Then what? Will I still give thanks in the difficulty? I hope so.
In the meantime, I am thanking God for each blessing in my life, for my husband, my children, our home, our family and friends. I thank Him for His provision in our life, and our health. But I also thank Him for those friends who are hurting, and the beautiful witness that their lives are. They inspire me, and bless me.
April E.
