Prayer of Thanksgiving

From time to time I take my robust good health for granted.  This morning I was visiting with my mother (over the phone) while she was busy with last minute Thanksgiving preparations.  She was telling me about her upcoming travels and the many things that needed to be done in the next few weeks.  One of the items on her "to-do" list was making dinner for a local family.  This family is gracefully walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  Dad is a pastor, mom is a homemaker and schools her 6 children at home.  They live a quiet, simple and wholesome life.  And mom has inoperable cancer.  The oldest child has accepted the mantle of womanhood and is schooling and caring for her younger siblings, while she cooks, cleans and runs the home.  Two nights a week, in an effort to ease this young lady's burden, my parent's church provides a meal for the family.  It is a small gift, but a gift born of love.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this year, we will be giving thanks for the bountiful health we enjoy.  But as we give thanks, we will also remember those that are walking a very different path.  We will thank God that He is caring not only for the healthy but especially for the sick, the tired and the weak.  He truly is The Great Physician.

I Needed the Quiet

 

I needed the quiet so He drew me aside

Into the shadows were we could confide

Away from the bustle where all day long

I hurried and worried when active and strong.

 

I needed the quiet, tho at first I rebelled

But gently, so gently, my cross he upheld

And whispered so sweetly of spiritual things

Tho weakened in body, my spirit took wings

To heights never dreamed of when active and gay

He loved me so greatly he drew me away.

 

I needed the quiet.  No prison my bed,

But a beautiful valley of blessings instead

A place to grow richer, in Jesus to hide.

I needed the quiet, so he drew me aside.

 

Alice Hansche Mortenson

1944

A beautiful Thanksgiving to you all.