Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Thanksgiving Gratitude

I can’t help but marvel at the briskness in the air. It’s fall again. I’m baking pumpkin bread, pumpkin pies, acorn squash, butternut squash, collards, cabbage, and molasses bread. Spices perfume the air. Roasted pumpkin seeds garnish the butternut squash soup. It’s my favorite time of year.


Did I mention fall festivals? Beautiful, created pieces of artwork that tantalize the mind. Mums in orange, purple, rust, and yellow. Apple Cider. Fire pits up and running. Football games and tailgating. Fundraising dinners with pulled pork, slaw, steamed potatoes, and simmered apples. Church bazaars: soup for lunch and a feast of homemade goodies and crafts. Everyone has the opportunity to be blessed and be a blessing.

The biggest blessing I get every fall is to watch my grandmother’s Christmas cactus bloom. 


They always bloom right before Thanksgiving and again in late January – a double blessing. Just like all the other beauty this time of year, I get this extra special blessing to remember my grandmother who died in October 2007. It feels like her plants bloom every year to honor her and remind me how much I loved her.

Blessings flow this time of year. I wonder if it’s because we can look back over the year and sense God’s presence working in our lives and others. Maybe it’s more than the reflection of what’s occurred and more about what’s coming – Christmas, celebrating God’s greatest gift to the world, Jesus Christ.

As I write this, my mind is swirling in gratitude. I am so thankful for so many things. Faith. Prayers. Family. Friends. America. Freedom. Church. Health. And more than anything, seeing Christ healing, working miracles, and answering prayers; I’m so thankful. But I’m also thankful when God has us wait on answers.

Waiting gives me the opportunity to sit back and breathe, knowing God is working within His will and timing on my issues. And during the wait, I’m baking. Maybe today I will try a new dessert. That always makes me happy.

Happy Thanksgiving! May God bless you abundantly like He always does!


1 comment:

  1. There is so much to be thankful for - the list is endless because God is so awesome!
    Some blessings He gives at certain times in our lives. And He, of course, has the timing just right! Like when He introduced me to you! What a blessing you are to me! ❤❤❤

    ReplyDelete