Today is a thanksgiving holiday for me.  I’m just taking a day off after two weeks and several thousand miles of travel to be thankful for making it there and back once again. I have “that thought” every time I leave home that I might not be back again, ever.  I’m not upset or overly morbid about it – it’s more a realization that there is no promise of longevity or a trouble free life given to anyone. Stuff happens, no matter how careful you are.

I’m thankful that we made it through yesterday’s rain storms.  It went from light rain to total white gray out several times, with so much water on the road that cars were leaving a wake, yet people streaked past at 60+ miles per hour.  The potential for disaster was tremendous, yet we made it safely.

We made it through two weeks of family togetherness, including an overnight trip for my aunt’s memorial service,  I am thankful for every smile and hug, every meaningful conversation, every grace giving moment, every meal lovingly prepared, every precious minute of time spent.  I am thankful for those who took care of my home, my cats, my business while we were gone.  I am thankful to have a home to come back to, thankful for a night’s sleep without wheels moving under me.  I’m thankful for blessings that make me feel loved and trials that make me stronger – I have both. .

It feels really good to have an official day of gratitude.  I probably wouldn’t see much sense in gratitude if I didn’t believe God was there to thank for it all.  If all of life was just chemical reactions that came about randomly and somehow repeat themselves in an orderly way I wouldn’t waste any time or energy being thankful for any of it. Today on the radio I heard it said that “faith grows in the soil of gratitude” and  that has really happened to me. And I have to believe that the opposite process happens too “for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”   I’m not a preacher, not a perfect Christian – but today I’m taking a simple step toward faith by telling God thanks, and I really mean it.