A CORNUCOPIA OF THANKS

Today there is reason for all of us to give thanks.  Some, fully able to identify right now with these traditional blessings, might prefer the first poem,  Others will find yourselves encountering a different kind of Thanksgiving this year, blessed, oh yes, for sure, but with a different feel--one more sober with both feet planted on the ground though your eyes are still cast upward.  Whatever your Thanksgiving is like this year, whatever your feelings are tempting you to accept as truth,  I pray you and all those you love will know the presence of your Father, your Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. 

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.   For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.”  Psalm 100:4-5

“Thank you for the world so sweet.

Thank you for the food we eat.

Thank you for the birds that sing;

Thank you, God, for everything.”

For budding life—both petal and skin—

And the courage it gives me to hope again;

The oranges and yellows of Your autumnal world,

And the pink in the cheeks of our new baby girl.

For her days ahead full of trouble but grace

That will give her the strong feet to win the long race.

For a husband who lays down his life in your care,

And forgives me unendingly and goes on from there;

For my children whose faces go with me each day,

Growing older and wiser but still loving to play—

Sons and daughters as they’ve always been,

But now brothers and sisters who’ve become my friends.

For hearts who cherish my history,

And whose knees bend in prayer for me stubbornly;

For their eyes that are tender and hearts that are strong;

Tongues that will lovingly tell me I’m wrong.

For arms that enfold me and kiss away tears;

For the blood of your son that shatters my fears;

For brown earth that blossoms beneath yellow sun;

For a spirit that sings and feet that can run;

A mind that remembers and heart that can see

Such visions in detail of all that can be.

For bright hope and warm comfort that always abounds

When I fall disheartened with my face to the ground.

You remind me of all of the times in the past

When the bleakness I feared had won didn’t last.

So for seasons that change, for the thrill of surprise,

For Your Son who came near to reveal Satan’s lies,

For You packed in everything above and below,

What can I say?  How can I show

My thanks for this cornucopia so sweet

Sent down with your blessing and laid at my feet?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

              ‘Do not be afraid, Abram.

              I am your shield,

             Your very great reward.’” Genesis 15:1

Oh, Lord, in this season of fruitless requests

When I’m called just to trust you to do what is best,

With heavier feet I come; still I come—

Not with bountiful faith, but at least with some.

Pale and muted I sit, but at least I just sit

And not rush around madly trying to make pieces fit.

I know you are wishing I’d just leave this alone

In your hands while I count all the blessings I own.

Oh, please see I keep trying, but I’m crippled, it seems—

Haunted by losses and fractured dreams.

Please move me along from this waiting place

To your higher ground of selfless grace

Where my own minor bruises fade from my view,

And I bow in thanksgiving for the Blessing of You.

You said just to “stand” when we’ve done all we know,

So I’ll stand here in your armor until you say “Go,”

Praying that the mind of Christ will move in

So at last I might lose, and you finally might win.

Maybe this Thanksgiving feels different from the other years.  Perhaps the blessing you feel you need most continues and continues and continues some more to hide elusively.  If the blessings you are counting seem still not to overcome the weight of the pain and disappointment, push that list aside and focus fully on the one greatest Blessing—your “shield and your very great reward.”  Remember, Dear One, that when we can manage to stay put before God, when we can manage to remain standing even though we can’t make much forward progress, we are at just the right place to take the rare opportunity to bless God for being the Everlasting Arms when all others fail, the Mighty Shield when every other defense has fallen.  In our dearth we find a different kind of cornucopia; in our penury, a new way to give thanks. 

From Broken Jar: 365 Days on the Potter's Wheel, Jan Doke, 2009