A Meditation for this Thanksgiving
A Day in the Life of...
Imagine that you're a Protestant pilgrim. You live in a one- roomed log house with your rather large family of eight, plus all of your aunts, uncles and ornery little cousins. The nights are freezing; even with all that body heat, it's still difficult to fall asleep. By the time you do manage to drift off, the baby is awake, crying frantically for Mother's touch. Then it's dawn. You're up again before the sun is over the tree line, chopping wood, feeding chickens, washing dozens of bundles of clothing.... Life is busy, and hard. There's also that constant tension over the "natives" living in the forest, the ones that worship nature. They've been watching your town from the surrounding hills. Are they going to attack?
Let's change the scenario a little. It's 1945. You haven't heard from your father in over 4 months. Your older brother is getting antsy himself; he and Mother are awake long into the night, arguing over his volunteering for the military. School is hard to concentrate on, because it seems that everyone is talking about the long list of casualties from the recent combat. Your father could be one of them; surely he's all right, isn't he? You can't do anything to comfort your family; you're always in the way, Mother worries over your falling grades, the younger ones are moody and irritable.... Will life never be the same?
Let's try one more. It's 2006. Society is changing. Untrustworthy leaders rule the land. Peer pressure in school and the workplace increases. Families are becoming more estranged than ever before. Christians are the minority. You fight your way through the thick fog of a sex- and smut-filled society each day, filthy language from those around you plays in your head, you feel so small and disconnected from God.... What is there to be thankful for?
A Common Misconception
"I have it the worst. No one else knows what I'm going through ... it's never been this hard for anyone, ever." Ever felt that way before? We all have at some point. Life just seems so overwhelming, and it is, of our own strength. But the fact is, history is brimming with examples of people who have had it far worse than we have. Where one person's story seems desperate and beyond hope, the next person's is even worse. Even the Bible is full of testaments to the harsh realities of life's trials and difficulties. Everyone suffers; it's a fact of life.
"Wonderful. Now the entire world is a just a suffering mass of people struggling to get through life. How comforting." Well, frankly, you're right. There's not much comfort there. Sure, it helps to know that there are people who can encourage and sympathize with you because they've been there, but it brings little remedy. But ... we have been promised "a peace that surpasses all understanding." That peace comes from the Maker and Sustainer of all who inhabit this earth.
Perhaps this Thanksgiving, instead of focusing on your trials, and what you don't have, look instead to what you do: You have God's steadfast promise that He will never leave you nor forsake you! He will grant you that comforting peace that only His children know! You have His everlasting love to call your own!
A Glorious Truth
In this turbulent and hectic world, we can hardly rely on our own selves to fulfill our promises to each other. But this promise of peace has the credibility of the One who cannot lie, and who cherishes us as much as He does His Son! This is a comfort to dwell upon, is it not? Knowing that these trials and difficulties are but for a time, let us "press on" toward the crown of victory, to the One who has promised us eternal, joy-filled life with Him!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and give honor to God!
