Psalm 118:24
This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Twenty-four hours. We all get the same amount of time in each and every day. Yet how we choose to live in those 24 hours differs greatly. Some of us will live with joy and purpose…some of us will gripe and grumble our way through the day. Others will sleep away a big chunk of it…after all, the “Thanksgiving Holiday break” has already begun for many!
Almost 30 years ago, I had major surgery a few days before Thanksgiving. I remember getting a phone call from my parents on Thanksgiving Day, as family members gathered at their house some 90 miles away for feasting and fun. I have to admit that I felt a little sorry for myself and Greg as I heard the laughs and chatter of family members arriving for that special get-together. But our precious neighbors brought huge plates of food to us from their family feast…and they returned with MORE full plates that evening from another family dinner! Our hearts – and our bellies – were FULL! We found a way to “rejoice and be glad” for God’s love and care on that day.
About a decade later, my mother ate her Thanksgiving Dinner in a hospital cafeteria in another city, as she sat with my dad, who was too sick from renal failure to even smell food. At their insistence, we carried on with the traditional “family dinner” at our house…and we made the best of things, given the circumstances. We found a way to “rejoice and be glad” for God’s love and care on that day.
This year, our “Thanksgiving Holiday break” will include visits with family and friends…including the squeals and giggles of several little children, which always add to the fun. We will have our traditional favorite foods…and honor those who have gone before us - and the role they played in holiday gatherings of the past. And in all of it, we will recognize that the LORD made this day – and every day – and we will “rejoice and be glad in it”.
I don’t know what your next 24 hours will be like…or how you will celebrate Thanksgiving Day – or IF you will even celebrate. But when you know and love Jesus, every day is part of a “Thanksgiving Holiday break”…or at least, it should be. Whatever your circumstances…wherever “life” takes you today and in the days ahead…will you recognize that this is the day that the Lord has made? Will you thank Him for His love and care for every single minute of it? Will you find a way to “rejoice and be glad”?
©2014 Debbie Robus
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