There was a time I could put everything I owned in a VW Beetle and still have room for a passenger. That was a few years in many thousands of blessings ago. The spring of our first year of marriage Lois and I started back to college—everything we owned fit in a small U-Haul trailer behind our Plymouth duster.
(PS if you ever try that be sure you put a cooler on your transmission or you may end up beside the road someplace like Effingham Illinois)
Since then Lois and I have accumulated a few things—a house a barn and a driveway full of blessings—so many things that it has become a problem we worry about some.
Storing, maintaining, organizing, and ensuring the things we own requires genuine effort and expense. We have valuable things to insure. We have more clothes than we can wear, more books then we can read, more cars then we can drive at one time, and more antiques then we can sell. Lots more. Lots lots more. And did I mention thousands of books? And no one ever has to wait to use the bathroom because we have one each.
For this reason it occurred to me as I watch from my writing loft for the last stubborn yellow leaf of autumn to waft down from the maple east of the house, that one day is not enough for us to give thanks for our material blessings alone—for our comforts and our conveniences— to say nothing of the things that are ours that you could never put a price tag on or ensure, the love of family, the mercy of God, a home in heaven.
So here’s my suggestion. Here is something to go with your coffee on a brisk November morning. One day thank God for your coffee. Thank God for your ability to taste and smell. Not everyone can. Thank him for a home. Thank him every morning and throughout the day every single November day. Make November a month of gratitude. This will lighten your heart. This will sweeten your day. This will deep in your joy. This will strengthen your soul. Nothing but good will come from this. Be thankful every day all month long. People will notice the difference. It will put a spring step and a smile on your face even if you do end up scraping some snow off the windshield this month.
I’m grateful for you, Bethel family. Grateful every single day.
