Sorry I missed last week. The days are getting away from me right now! No promises of what’s going to happen around Christmas time either 🙂

Again the pics have nothing to do with the blog but they are from Israel so I think they are interesting 🙂 These pics were taken in the southern portion of Israel.

Thankfulness – sometimes it feels like what more can be said about this subject. We all know what it means to be thankful, right?

I even looked up the definition of the word “thankful” just to make sure I really did know what it meant. Basically it means “to be glad that something had happened or has not happened; that something or someone exists… etc.” The second definition was “conscious of a benefit received.” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary)

After reading that I was struck by the idea there is something very appropriate about a day of Thanksgiving kicking off the season in which we celebrate the life of Jesus. We have so much for which to be thankful. OR “to be glad” that the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus really happened. We have all greatly benefited from the grace of God through the faithfulness of the Son.

We have much for which to be thankful this season.

Yet for some reason thankfulness does not always seem to be the emotion that I get either from myself or others right now. Stress, impatience, frustration, excitement about the gifts coming, the parties, the friends and family we’ll see, the food we’ll eat… that’s what I feel myself and that’s what I hear from others.

How fickle I am. How easily sidetracked I can be. I can say week after week that life is all about God but I can’t even keep Christmas all about Jesus!

Believer, you have been blessed beyond measure. No matter what circumstances are going on right now in your life. And yes, some of you may have incredibly hard and difficult struggles occurring. I’m not down-playing that at all! But compared to being in Covenant for all eternity with a faithful-Covenant-keeping-Creator-of-the-universe-Lord-of-all-God who desperately loves you… what are our struggles compared to that but a light and momentary affliction.

We have much for which to be thankful. Especially during this incredibly busy and stressful holiday season. Jesus came, He was born, He lived, He died, and He was raised from the dead 3 days later. And He is waiting and interceding for us even now. How great is our God!