Thanksgiving Devotional

Psalm 26:7
That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving,
And tell of all Your wondrous works.

In the life of my wife and I now is a 6 month old granddaughter. Thank you (that's for the congratulations some of you just thought). Her being in our lives really is worthy of congratulations. She is precious to us. I dare say to us she is pretty important to us. She is a BIG priority. She needs lots of attention, affection, protection and most of all lots of love. She's too young right now to understand any of what is going on in her life but even science has realised the great importance of this stage of her life being critical to her overall well being and development. So we have our part to play in doing whatever we can to help her. And as a result, we are immensely blessed. All it takes is a little upturn of the corners of her mouth and for those big blue eyes to grow wider and to brighten up even more and we receive payment of blessings in dividends.

That's all it takes is a moment of being looked at in the eye with a smile on a face and the recipient is blessed in the greatest of all possible ways.

She can't sing a song yet. She can't dance a jig. She can't come home with a good report card yet. She can't wash the car. She can't clean her room. She can't come home on time. She can't get into a good college yet. She can't go to work and get a raise. She can't even say "I love you".

So what has she accomplished that is worthy of congratulations so far in her 6 months? Well shes messed up a whole bunch of diapers so far. She's thrown her toys around enough for it to qualify for an Olympic event. She drank up all kinds of formula. She requires and demands constant attention except for when she's sleeping and even that's a crap shoot (pun intended). She's done absolutely NOTHING that we would consider to be successful or valuable as a contribution to the world. She just is. And she cannot be any more precious or valuable to us than she was on the day she was born. Or on this day. The day before her first Thanksgiving.

Psalm 139 tells us that God Himself forms the innards of every human being. The inner person, the personality, the soul of the person. And since it is God who creates all that we see and creates us in His image and likeness it stands to reason that every human being is fearfully and wonderfully made.

So it's safe to say that being proclaimed in this Thanksgiving devotional is that a voice of thanksgiving is proclaiming the wondrous and most valuable and precious work of God in creating someone in our lives named Brooklynn.

She is most precious to us. But she is no more and no less precious than any other person. To bless us she will never, ever have to perform or do anything to earn our love. Even if she stops smiling and looking back at us with those incredible blue eyes, our love for her will not and cannot ever change. It will always just be.

Today I can find millions of things to be thankful for. Two of them are in my immediate vicinity as I write this. And from what I've come to know of God I find it hard to believe that He doesn't feel the same way about all of us. Every one of us. That all of us need not do a thing to earn His love and acceptance. His love and acceptance of us just is.

Do you ever doubt His love for you? Most of us have from time to time. And there is a wonderful answer to that doubt. The answer can be found 2000 years ago dying on a cross. If that doesn't dispel the doubt about His love I doubt that anything else can.

And all he wants is for us to trust in the love offering of His Son and from time to time, to gaze back at Him with a smile and big wide eyes that simply say, "thank you".

Happy Thanksgiving.

Holy Father we come to You in the name of Jesus Christ and we thank you for blessings too numerous to count. Even if we are struggling with some great difficulty or loss this holiday we can still find something to be thankful for. And if we can't than we know You understand and will help us to work through and to deal with whatever has happened in our lives. Help us to have hearts of gratitude not just on this day but everyday for You are good and worthy to be praised, no matter our circumstances for Your love remains and always is. You give us at least that to count on and that is more than enough.                                        
In Your holy name, amen.