I'm Thankful ---

There's much to be thankful for these days. All one needs to do is take inventory of your life looking for things for which you are thankful. If you are like I am, it isn't hard to find many things. Here's my list of three for today:

1. The weather. Wow, it is such a nice day again today. I know that the weather is a topic for discussion whenever and wherever, but when there are as many really nice days the first part of November that we have had this year, it is worthy of mention here. The weather does influence our lives more than we might like to admit. For instance, sunny, bright warm days like we have had tend to make us feel more chipper, positive, and like doing something worth while. I am grateful for nice weather - its harder to be grateful for damp and chilly days or cold, snowy days. But I know we need both rain and sunshine - God planned it that way. I always thank the Lord for the rain even if I don't feel like it sometimes.

2. I mentioned the world of nature yesterday, but I am truly grateful for the world as I can view it here. There are so many sights that we can see that its hard to pick out any one and say that I'm truly thankful that God allowed me to see that. But there is one sight that Clara and I were privileged to see recently that is worthy of special mention. It was after our evening meal and the sun was about to set in the west. It had been cloudy all day, but now at sunset the sun made a brief appearance. We had gone outside just to look at the trees, etc. as the sun was shining on them. In our front yard we have a large locus tree that is about half dead - dead limbs stick their heads out even when the trees are fully leafed out. But now the leaves were about half gone and those that remained on the tree were a bright yellow. As I looked around, all at once I looked at that locus tree and the top looked like it was on fire. Brilliant colors seemed to glow from those ugly, scraggly limbs, and the leaves themselves glissened. Indeed God had transformed something that we called ugly in nature to something almost beyond description in beauty.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned from this experience: 1) it is good to slow down and "smell the roses," take time to enjoy the small things God has placed around us. In our fast paced world it seems that it is too easy to speed past some of those things and miss the beauty that God makes. 2) God sees all people as those who can be transformed into persons of beauty even if they may appear to us to be "scraggly, dead limbs on a tree." All it takes is for God's light to shine on, and in them for that transformation to take place. I'm grateful for that and for God's work in me.

3. For the last month or so I have been experiencing some fairly severe headaches. Many tests have been done to determine the cause, and I am being treated for a very stubborn infection in my sinuses and mastoids. Today is the third day now that I have not had a headache, and I am so thankful for that. Severe headaches simply sap the life out of me. I hope that I am finished with those things, but if not, I know that I will be some day, hopefully soon. Being able to go outside to enjoy the beautiful weather, and do some things I have only been able to wish I could do gives me much pleasure. I continually praise the Lord for His goodness, for His grace and mercy, and for His presence with me no matter what my physical condition may be. I am committed to follow Jesus as long as I live, and by His grace I will always seek to do that.

There's much more I could say about these things, but that will suffice for today. May God bless you as you think about the many things for which you are thankful. Don't be afraid to tell others how God has blessed you, and you will receive another blessing for doing that. I know I have.

Pilgrim on the way