[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Thursday November 9, 2006

[bludwig at zlc-aa.org]

Daily Devotions Thursday November 9, 2006

The devotions this week are written by Pastor Barry Ludwig. Having just
returned from a weekend in New York City where his oldest daughter ran in
the NYC marathon, he reflects upon the season of Thanksgiving.

 

Psalm   111:1-12

Praise the LORD. I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the
LORD,  studied by all who have pleasure in them.  

 

"Barry, it's Thanksgiving, but you sure don't look thankful," my mother
ventured as she passed the mashed potatoes. I grimaced and thought, "Why
should I be thankful, God didn't give me snow."  As a child, for weeks
before Thanksgiving each year I would pray diligently for snow on
Thanksgiving

 

I no longer remember why snow as so important to me, but there I sat at the
feasting table with my favorite meal before me,  downtrodden, and thankless.
Sitting next to me was my beloved Grandma who always treated me like I was
the most important person on the planet earth and I was depressed and
thankless.

 

There was my Father who always made me feel safe and my Mother who was
radiant in her carefully ironed apron and I was sullen and thankless.  At
the other end of the table where he could not push, punch or pummel me, sat
my older brother and I was imprisoned by my own thanklessness! All because
there was no snow.

 

We seem to do that all of our life. Surrounded by so much that is good and
the constant possibility for joy, we often choose to be thankless because we
don't have snow (whatever that metaphor may represent for you). The Psalmist
reminds us to thank God with our whole heart.  No wilting "thanks" will do.
Look around you, there is so much for which to be thankful. Forget the snow,
it will come soon enough!

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