Catching Up
Note: Health issues since mid-October have limited my being able to publish the last 3 months of reflections. Here, today, January 24, 2025, I attempt to offer thoughts that I truly prayed about but could not publish on the site.
Bridged by Two Songs
When taken together the months of November and December come as a gift to us…a beckoning of some sort! Each year at that time, we receive a call, an invitation to thankfulness and faithfulness. The lyrics of two particular songs, sung by thousands of believers each year in these months, seem bridged to me and evoke this call for us to be more grateful and more faithful.
November’s Song: The verses of “ Come, Ye Thankful People Come” speak of harvest and of a God who PROVIDES! What does it take to be thankful? We need to be noticers…a people who pay attention and take the time to see goodness all around them…people who gather all these moments and treasure them in their hearts…and people who take account of glimpses of the divine like a baby’s smile, a wren at the feeder, the color of dusk, a thank you note in the mail, a spouse’s morning kiss. And when we take account of all these and more as signs of God’s providential goodness, we become a people steadfast in hope. A grateful heart is a heart that knows joy and peace, and that absolutely nothing can take these away.
December’s Song: The verses of “O Come All Ye Faithful” are also sung by thousands, and right on the heel of November’s clarion song. This one is a call to be a joyful and triumphant people who know the Source of their joy and do the best they can in their daily lives to be present to that Source! What does it take to be faithful? We need hearts filled to the brim with a firm belief tht what God has started…god will bring to completion…hearts that believe in God’s promise that even of others abandon us, deceive us, hurt us, God will never abandon us! God is ever trustworthy and only wants the best for us. To be faithful is to trust that no matter what and for all time God loves us.
November and December are already behind us, but every month and every season is the time to express gratitude for every glimpse of goodness we experience… and to hear an invitation to be faithful, to trust in a God who keeps promises. I invite you to sing both songs in and out of Season!!
