Give Thanks

“I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders.”
Psalm 9:1 NASB95

In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years’ War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried 5,000 of his parishioners in one year—that’s an average of about fourteen funerals a day. His parish was ravaged by war, economic disaster, starvation, disease, and death.

  Yet, in the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, Pastor Rinkart sat down and wrote this table grace for his children:
    Now thank we all our God
    With heart and hands and voices;
    Who wondrous things hath done,
    In whom His world rejoices.
    Who, from our mother’s arms,
    Hath led us on our way
    With countless gifts of love
    And still is ours today.

  Martin Rinkart was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from our love for God, not from outward circumstances.   (Craig Larson, Illustrations for Teaching & Preaching)

  This Thanksgiving holiday will be a first for my family. Ramona and I will not be with our parents. The kids will not sit at Grandma’s table. We will have to watch the Texas Aggies grind the Texas Longhorns into Bevo burgers from our living room, rather than from the bleachers of Kyle Field.

  Now before you start thinking we’ll be suffering from the holiday blues, I assure you that we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with new traditions and counting our blessings with our new family in Wisconsin. When I start telling the story of the wondrous things God has done in our lives in the past year, I can’t help but give Him thanks.

  My prayer for each of you is that, no matter your circumstances, you will give thanks for God’s wondrous work in your life this past year. Happy Thanksgiving!
                                                                             
Love,
Pastor Larry