Wow, it's November already, and I'm thinking of Thanksgiving – food, family, and football!  I’m sure you’re already tracking with me!  I am so thankful for each and every one of you!  Your presence in my life, and in the life of my family, is one of God’s true blessings.

I am also thankful that, as Christian broke his arm in a football game last month, the injury wasn’t worse than it was.  He is almost back to normal… such as it is in our household!  Speaking or “normal” in our household, we are all excitedly thankful for the news that our family is going to growing sometime around June 1 of next year!  Surprised, but thankful!

There is a great call-to-worship Scripture that the Message renders, "Enter with the password: "Thank you!" Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him." (Psalm 100:4)

“Thank You” is the password into God’s presence.  He is always present with us, but it is when we express gratitude to Him that His presence is made known.  Thanking God is actually acknowledging His presence in our lives!  When we’re ungrateful, or take life for granted, we can so easily miss the awesome, WHOAH!-inspiring presence of God. 

You see, I have this problem – I don’t want to miss anything.  My inner desire to experience everything this life can possibly offer has led me down some pretty dark and difficult roads.  Something that is really cool about God is that He doesn’t want me to miss anything either.  What I have learned is that He wants me to experience what He has planned for me to experience – He wants me to embrace the life that He has given me, and really live!  But, God knows that there are a lot of things to experience in this world that are not what He has planned for me.  As a matter of fact, God’s desire is that I not experience those things which cause me to miss what He has for me.  The best part of all this is that the things God has for me to experience are so much more amazing than those things I might experience outside of His plan for me.  When I experience everything God has to offer, I find that I absolutely am not missing anything – and I experience, above all else, that awesome, WHOAH!-inspiring presence of God!

When we experience the presence of God, we can’t help but be thankful.  This is a great opportunity to reflect on what the word “thanksgiving” means. The Hebrew word translated as “thanksgiving” is tôwdâh (pronounced to-daw’). Tôwdâh means to literally extend the hand in adoration or appreciation.  Being thankful is saying “thank you”, but it’s also extending the hand – doing something for someone… doing something for God! 

Let’s continue to do the work… often difficult work… of merging faith, family, and culture.  As we extend our hands, let’s pray that we see our community transformed as we be the body of Christ!  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Be the church!