When it's hard to give thanks...

Sometimes the world with its woes crowds in.  Sometimes the news seems all bad and the clouds loom dark.  Sometimes the body is too frail and too exhausted.  Sometimes we lose the ones we love so dearly.

It's these times that thanksgiving gets stuck in our throats, not quite uttered.  Almost too afraid, not wanting to to utter thanks for fear of inviting more trouble.  Wondering, wondering... why can't God be seen?

I have been there.  Too many times.  

My friend, He is there.  He is faithful.  He is Creator AND Sustainer. He is always and knows all ways.  He is beside and behind and far ahead.  God is there, working in every detail, caring so tenderly for each of us.

Give thanks.  He is good.  He is worthy.  Write just one thing.  Offer gratitude for this one gift.  Soon another gift will come to mind.  And then another.  Before long, the list will grow, overflowing with gifts.  Right there in the middle of the world and its woes... finding Crazy Joy...

- slow healing, giving me time to rest

- prayers of friends and family

- smiling Sunday faces

- trading wares

- a brother and a sister

- computers allowing me to work and create

- women gathering to study the Word

- warm socks

- Autumn, sweet Autumn

- Jesus' love and example, preserved in Scripture, available to even me