The days in-between...: A Time of Thanksgiving

Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Thanksgiving
With each season there is a time of change. It’s the beginning of fall. The leaves are changing colour. The weather is getting colder. The birds are flying south. We are preparing for that change by pulling out the fall clothes, finding the winter gear before the first snow falls. Fall is the season that prepares us for Winter. We are in that prepatory stage. The stage where there is sometimes a little unrest. It’s a time of wonder, anticipation and occasionally the feeling of dread that Summer is over. We don’t know what this new season will hold: a lot of rain? a lot of snow? Ice? Snowdays?

In each season of our lives, there is a time of change. We are still in the beginning of the school year. We are still in that prepatory stage of wonder, anticipation and occasionally the feeling of dread that Summer break is over. What will the school year hold: a year of growth, a year of discipline, a year of great achievement?

This month I turn 25. A whole new year. To you, that might seem young, but to me I feel like I’m stepping into a whole new stage. I went to the grocery store the other day and saw that it would take me more than a box of 24 candles to fill my cake. I now need two boxes! (unless you buy a pack of 100) There is a little unrest for me in that fact. I am in a state of wonder, anticipation and even anxiousness about the year. What will it hold?

My family members are also in a prepatory stage. My brother and sister in law are preparing for the birth of their first child, my parents preparing for their first grandchild and me my first niece or nephew. Things are changing.

Some of you are in prepatory stages, preparing your children for learning to walk, preparing your children for a new school year, preparing for children to move out of the house, preparing for your son or daughter’s wedding, preparing your grandchildren of your own, preparing for finishing masters, preparing for surgeries. We are all in that prepatory stage in some way in our lives.

Anticipation about what the changes may bring can be exciting but can also be frightening when we can’t see the complete outcome.

The pastor of my church is leaving and the church I attend is in the stage of wonder, confusion, and anxiousness about what will happen. In his last sermon, the pastor talked about the creation story in Genesis and how God first prepared the world and then filled it. The first three days of creation God created the light, the dark, the water, the sky, the land and the plants. The next 3 days of creation, God fulfilled it by creating the sun, moon and stars to govern the light and the dark, he made the birds and fish to fill the water and sky and he made the animals to live on land and the people to work in the garden and to rule over his works. There was evening and morning after each day. There was evening first- a time of darkness when one cannot see, followed by morning when the light begins to shine. In the seasons of our lives, there is a time when we cannot see what is ahead of us. We may be confused or anxious but God promises to follow that time with his light so that we can look back and see his faithfulness in our lives.

Thanksgiving is a time where we look at our lives and we see all the things that God has done and how he has shown his love and faithfulness to us. There is not just one evening and morning but each new day has an evening and a morning. In some instances, we may still be in that evening stage waiting for the morning light to come where in other instances we have been shown God’s faithfulness.