Happy Thanksgiving!

Thoughts for Cheri

November 26, 2003

“I really enjoyed the Thanksgiving supper at church.  I have never enjoyed or felt as welcomed at a church event before.  People actually invited me to sit with them.  Several expressed concern and made sure I had plans for Thanksgiving.  I felt confident and capable.  It felt wonderful.  I feel like I am becoming the new person with this new free life full of possibilities that I can handle.  It is amazing!”

“I really enjoyed the Thanksgiving supper at church.  I have never enjoyed or felt as welcomed at a church event before.  People actually invited me to sit with them.  Several expressed concern and made sure I had plans for Thanksgiving.”  I’m happy this came up today, the day before Thanksgiving.  Before I say more let me explain that I had great times at church events before.  Friends in both churches I attended while I was married were sweet and wonderful to me.  However, the difference was in me.  I was always on edge and feeling like I didn’t belong.  No one knew what my life was like and many of these people have been extremely supportive and loving once they discovered what I had been through.  Several have said they wished they had known so they could have helped.  I’m just thankful for the way God changed me and placed me in a church with such loving people while I healed.

For someone who once felt worthless and unloved this was a special event.  I remember so many people warmly greeting me.  I was invited to sit with my friend and her family.  It’s hard for a single person to walk into events like this not knowing where to sit or if anyone will even notice you.  Events where families are so visible can cause pain and heartache when you’re alone.  Often the loneliest place in the world is in a crowd.  I’ve found that so often over the years, even while I was married.  So to walk into this room and feel wanted and loved was a meaningful moment.

Reading the words ‘I felt confident and capable.  It felt wonderful.  ’ these years later gives me a warm feeling.  It had been a long time since I felt that way.  This was only 7 months into my journey of healing and restoration and look had far God had already brought me.  He is amazing, isn’t He? 

“I feel like I am becoming the new person with this new free life full of possibilities that I can handle. It is amazing.”   This was a moment that mattered.  I still had rough, sad, and some angry days ahead of me.  I still do because I’m living life in this broken world.  But for the first time I had hope for myself because of God’s great love, mercy, grace, and provision.  I felt new and full of what could be.  When you’ve felt hopeless with overwhelming searing pain in your life this first spark of encouragement ignites a fire in you that the Holy Spirit can fan into your heart a flame that spreads from you to others as you live your life as a reflection of the true Light Jesus Christ. 

In this Thanksgiving season I am abundantly thankful for the life God has given me through and because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the gifts of His Spirit.  My prayer for each of you is that you know have a relationship with Jesus.  Everything else, good, bad, or indifferent, pales in comparison to knowing Him as Savior, Master, Redeemer, and Friend.  There truly is something about that name!

Father,

Thank You for the hope that is found in the name of Jesus!

In this season when we’re recalling all of our blessings He is the most and best!

Open hearts, minds, eyes, and ears to this truth.

In the blessed name of Jesus,

Amen