A Thanksgiving Prayer
A little from my heart . . .
I’ve practiced gratitude all November before, only to arrive at Thanksgiving and forget to start the day with thanks. The swirl of the beautiful but busy food preparations, the hum of tires on the road when we travel, the stuffed grocery bags spilling over the counters waiting to be put away, the lists I start each year from scratch—sometimes they distract me from being thankful for the people all the preparations are meant to gather. I want to be fully present this year—see as immeasurably precious gifts the people we get to gather with. This journey I’ve been on of counting as gifts so much of what I often take for granted or fail to name as gift draws me back, again and again, to the Creator of all things. From the vantage point of being low before Him, I find clearer vision. I hope through this Thanksgiving prayer that you too might find clearer vision.
Would you join me in this Thanksgiving prayer?
May our thanks today be reminiscent of our everyday thanks—not simply Sunday worship, but thanksgiving spoken for the small, the ordinary, the overlooked, the painful. May the thanksgiving we’ve been practicing become a practice of giving thanks directly to You.
May we trust that You are a Giver of good gifts even when we can’t yet see the good in the gift. May we find You when we seek for the good in the gifts—seek to name as grace the things that prune and mold us.
May we come to You boldly and often. May we come because of You and not just for what You give. May we come with expectancy, with hands relaxed into open, with gentle surrender.
May we feel the weighty glory of Your presence. May it stir our longing for You, our awe of You. May we rest here a while before we move into the swirl of beautiful but busy.
May we choose the vantage point of being low before You so we can better see. May we see as priceless and precious those You long to pull into Your embrace.
May we wipe tears as You wipe ours, humbly serve as You serve us, and offer grace upon grace upon grace as You do for us.
May our words today breathe life, and hope, and truth.
May above all we love—even if the table isn’t pretty, even if our lives are messy, even if the kids are whiny, even if we don’t feel we have much to give.
Your Spirit dwells within in us in the middle of the ordinary, in the midst of the holiday—and for this we give thanks.
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