There are many things that I am so very thankful for as we enter into the season to be grateful. Just yesterday I was reminded of the how precious life is and how much there is to be grateful for when a little boy disappeared from the school where my daughter attends school. The entire community came out to search with police, teachers, administrators and hundreds of people from the community. Late last night he was found in a field right by our house. He was safe and unharmed, but ran away because his Mom’s parental rights were terminated yesterday.
On this side of childhood, we can look at this little boy and know that he still has the whole world ahead of him. Yesterday, for him, was devastating. But today he gets to take another breath. Today, everyone at school knows his name. Today, he is not invisible. Today, he will feel the outpouring of love from community, and friends, and from his foster parents who want to adopt him. He has so much pain and yet he also has so much good that is coming.
I think that so many times that is the way God sees whatever it is that we are going through. His heart aches for the pain we experience, but he also knows the bright and beautiful hope that is in front of us. All is not as dark as it seems in the night. Every single day there is so much that we take for granted. In every breath though there may be pain, there is also the miracle of life.
As we come into the season of Thanksgiving, I just want to encourage you to remember the bright and beautiful hope that is in front of you no matter what else you are facing.
I love this quote from Ann Voskamp:“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”
― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
I can’t wait to see what miracles are around the corner.