An Invitation to be Thankful

"In the palace, in the land of mercy, the king looked down from His throne. He saw the sick and the homeless and hungry. He saw me lost and without hope. And moved with compassion He sent out His only son with the invitation...to come.

So I stood outside the gates and trembled in my rags of unworthiness; afraid to even stand at a distance in the presence of holiness. And just as I turned to go, the gate swung open wide. And the King and His only Son....they invited me inside.

This is your invitation. Come just the way you are. Come find what your soul has been longing for. Come find your peace. Come join the feast. Come in. This is the invitation.

So now will you come with me to where the gate swings open wide. The King and His only Son are inviting us inside. ~Steven Curtis Chapman, "The Invitation".

As young children we are taught to say please and thank you. Somehow, through our adult life, we forget those simple words. "Please excuse me" turns into "move" and "thank you" turns into "it's about time!" We all seem to grow up and lose sight of our manners and our up-bringin'.

Once a year we stop and are thankful and we vow to carry it over into our lives in the new year. But the new year comes and school and work and troubles creep in and somehow the thankfulness we felt in November has dimmed to the light of an almost burned out flashlight. With each step it gets dimmer and dimmer until we are left walking in darkness. We eventually trip over something in the road and that is where we should drop to our smooth, unworn knees and begin thanking God. Most of us, though, skip over the thanking and head straight to the "get me up from here" prayers. We could stand a little more time on our knees. I love to see kids with skinned up knees. It means they've been out playing and falling down and running and jumping and living life like a kid should. I love it more when I see the scars and scrapes and cuts of adults who have lived out something down on their knees. And when they get up, they limp a little because wrestling something out with God can take it's toll on a person. But you see, when God allows or even invites His children to wrestle with Him, His constant goal is to make us over-comers. Even when God appears to be against us, He is for us.

"We are to walk as people who have encountered God, and some of our most transforming encounters are wrestling matches."

So keep up a thankful spirit this year and into the next. You never know what's around your next corner. There could be blessing untold and I pray that it is. But it could be a dark season, with the loss of a child, a job, a home, a family or your health. Thank the good Lord above for the things you do have. And if you're having trouble finding something for which to be thankful, drop on down to your knees and look at your life from a little lower place. When your nose is to the ground, you might just be closer to your promised land than you ever dreamed.

Happy Thanksgiving and may God bless you all richly. -