First a word about my good friend Rob. Rob is a graphic artist and a writer who collaborates with me and Pastor Janice Burnett to publish Sunshine Newsletter which is freely distributed in approximately 14 facilities in Florida, New York and Ohio. I am forever grateful to them as well as Barb Hegreberg of My Life in Our Father’s World who sometimes appears as a guest columnist. Chicken Soup for Thanksgiving will appear in next week’s Sunshine Newsletter, and I was so touched that I asked his permission to allow me to share it here. I hope you will be as blessed as I was. Thanks Rob!
Every November, my mother told us the unforgettable story of one Thanksgiving when she was a little girl. That year, her father prepared food parcels to share with those in need and each one contained everything needed for a Thanksgiving dinner. Starting in the morning, people came to the door, and each received their ready-to-cook feast. Later, just as their family was about to sit down to enjoy their own Thanksgiving, the doorbell rang again. When my grandfather opened the door, he found a humble man in need of food for his family. Although all the boxes were gone, my grandfather wouldn’t let him go away empty-handed. He packed up his own family’s dinner and gave it to that grateful father. As my mother and her family ate chicken soup for their Thanksgiving dinner that year, a warm sense of God’s blessing filled their hearts. That happened nearly one hundred years ago, long before I was born, but I still get teary-eyed every time I tell this story.
Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.Isaiah 58:10 NLT
In today’s verse, God promised that He would always provide for His people when they provided for others. As the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, God sent mana from heaven to feed them. Of course, that miraculous provision is unique in all of history. Usually, the Lord feeds the hungry through people like my grandfather. With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away let’s thank God for His care, and also be grateful for the people He uses to bless our lives. Let’s show our gratitude by saying, “Lord, use me to make your love real to the people around me even when it means having chicken soup for Thanksgiving!
With Halloween in the rear-view mirror and the first of November on our doorstep, a season of change is here. Next week the clocks will fall back, the leaves have already changed their color and the ground in the mountains where we once lived, will soon slip on a shimmery dress of frost. Though I posted this poem once before, I thought it might be a good reminder that change is part of God’s plan (which I usually hate it at first!). We get to choose whether to hope or worry about the changes that are upon us, but hope is so much better, because our Good – Good Heavenly Father always knows what is best for His children. Hope you also enjoy Good-Good Father which is one of my favorite Chris Tomlin songs.
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 11:13 NIV
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