Thanksgiving XII ~

 6-12 April:  During the past week, I was thankful for the energy given me day by day; thankful for the robins checking out possible nesting sites in the tree outside my window; thankful for the message given in the Worldwide English Bible (Luke 9:58): "Jesus said, `Foxes have holes to live in. Birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lie down to rest" - and He's given me a lovely home in my old age; thankful that our Father still hears and answers the prayers of our hearts when we call on Him for help;  thankful for springtime on the Camas Prairie - the flowers are coming!  I was thankful for these words from Jeremiah 24:7 where this is written: "... I will give them a heart that they might know me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart." (Jubilee Bible 2000); thankful for the dear daughter with whom I join to celebrate the day of her birth - wishing you a delightful day and a year of blessings to follow!   I was grateful for assistance in keeping the upstairs element of this big house tidy; thankful for the blessings God has given me through the lives of ALL my children!  I was thankful to see sunshine flooding through my window and a weather forecast that predicts a "mostly sunny" day; thankful that my D.S.I.L. was willing and able to assist in my bedtime routine (D.D. was away tending to another family member); thankful for this description of our Savior from Hebrews 1:1-3 where it is written: "Long ago in many ways and at many times God’s prophets spoke His message to our ancestors. But now at last, God sent His Son to bring His message to us. God created the universe by His Son, and everything will someday belong to the Son. God’s Son has all the brightness of God’s own glory and is like Him in every way. By His own mighty word, He holds the universe together. After the Son had washed away our sins, He sat down at the right side of the glorious God in heaven." (Common English Version); thankful to see big patches of blue overhead - may not last all day, but I was thankful for something other than precipitation; thankful for the showers of blessing that are raining down day after day; thankful for the message written in Romans 5:6-8 where we read: "For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. But God commends His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (World English Bible); 

thankful for the gifts our Father pours out for me day after day - life, health, the measure of strength that remains, and SO much more; thankful for the gift of the Spirit and His work in my life; and I am thankful for the greatest gift God gave us, His Son, who "He took on our sins in His body when He died on the cross so that we, being dead to sin, can live for righteousness. As the Scripture says, “Through His wounds, you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24; VOICE);

thankful for the love and mercy with which our Father covers us day by day; thankful for the assurances of protection as He keeps us in His care - we may "sleep" for a moment, but the 'forever" life He's promised is secure; and I was thankful for these words from John 3:35-36: “The One that God sent speaks God’s words. And don’t think He rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to Him so He could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life. . . ." (Message).