My heart is overwhelmingly full of memories today…from fresh, new memories like cuddling with Mackenzie in my arms while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, eating Mamaw’s lemon and/or chocolate pies (which my sister has thankfully mastered), making dressing with Nana (that’s Turkey, Sage and Ham Dressing, mind you), hunting with Bapaw and eating Thanksgiving at the kettle in Junction, snowy Chicago mornings with Meghan & her family, Thanksgiving with a view of the bog in Hilton Head with Mackenzie’s Great Grandma Ginny, my parents coaxing me that the puréed onions and celery wouldn’t ruin the dressing (and I made them this morning, Derald and Lesa)…memories of dear friends like Brent who’ve made the world a little brighter by their “Jesus Light…” and friends in places like Atlanta and new friends in Coppell with our Riverside family.
I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that on this 2015 Thanksgiving day, never has the Psalmist’s worshipful refrain in Psalm 118, the very refrain of the People of Israel been as true to me as it is today.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.” (Psalm 118)
I’m mindful of one of my favorite hymns today…with wonderful verses to express just how deep and broad our thanksgiving is.
Folliot S. Pierpoint and Conrad Kocher (Tune: Dix) have penned it so well (and it was even used in the 1994 Academy Award winning film, Little Women)
For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Refrain
Lord of all, to Thee we raise,*
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light.
Refrain
For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to sound and sight.
Refrain
For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild.
Refrain
For Thy Church, that evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love.
Refrain
For the martyrs’ crown of light,
For Thy prophets’ eagle eye,
For Thy bold confessors’ might,
For the lips of infancy.
Refrain
For Thy virgins’ robes of snow,
For Thy maiden mother mild,
For Thyself, with hearts aglow,
Jesu, Victim undefiled.
Refrain
For each perfect gift of Thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven.
Refrain
May we all be grateful to this degree…and beyond today!
Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours!