Thanksgiving Indeed

So what does a widow have to be thankful for on the first Thanksgiving after her husband's death? 
Lots.
I am thankful for the loving care of friends and family...providing for my physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
I am grateful for the grace and strength to face each day, finding little treasures of joy amid the rubble of grief. In fact, sometimes big treasures of joy.
I'm grateful that I still love to sing, and singing is aiding the healing process.
I am thankful that all my needs are miraculously met.  Sometimes it's like the fishes and the loaves.  I always have supply from the One whose supply is limitless.
I am grateful for the love my husband and I shared, and thankful that even though he is no longer here, our love will never die.  Ever.

I could go on like this forever.   I am aware - every moment - of something I am grateful for.  

Yeah, the holidays are hard.  Anticipation of the holidays is tough.  Tears happen. 
But every day is a challenge anyway, and I trust God to get me through each one from morning till night.  And He always does.

And..... there are still gorgeous sunsets, and there are still movies that make me laugh out loud, and there are still friendly hugs, and there are still babies that coo and smile at me in the checkout line.

There is still so much.   And for me, every day is still Thanksgiving.

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The Church Ladies

On a recent trip to the supermarket I noticed a bake sale going on just inside the store with smiling church ladies behind the table of packaged cookies and treats.  I decided I would make a contribution on my way out.

So later I stopped by the table and explained that I couldn't eat the sweets but would like to make a donation of a couple dollars, which was the price on most of the little packages of cookies they had on the table. They were very grateful and told me how they were renovating an old church to be their new church home and the bake sale would benefit the building fund.  I wished them good luck and dug into my wallet.  I was embarrassed to find I didn't have any one dollar bills.  Only a twenty in fact.  I apologetically explained my situation and one of the ladies assured me that was no problem. The store had been kind enough to supply them all the change they needed.  So I handed her the twenty.  She went into her change bag and asked again how much I wanted to give. I said "two dollars", so she rooted around in there and handed me back a ten and a bunch of ones.  I smiled and once again wished them well. 

When I got home  and re-organized my wallet, I was horrified to find that she had given me back a ten and ten ones.  The whole twenty dollars!  Thinking back on it, I thought she had a funny look on her face when I stuffed the money in my wallet and waved good-bye.  She must have thought the proper thing to do would be to hand me back the twenty in the appropriate denominations and leave it to me to hand her back the two dollars.  I just thought she would give me back eighteen dollars.  I felt terrible, and vowed to make it right if I got the chance.

The next day I went back to the store but the church ladies were not there.  Oh well. Then a couple weeks later I went to the same store and once again, there was the bake sale and smiling church ladies manning the table!  Here was my chance.  I didn't see any reason to go into a big explanation of  the previous debacle, so I just once again explained that I couldn't eat the sweets but would like to make a donation.  This time I gave them five dollars, just for good measure. I was redeemed! 

They were so very pleased and smiled brightly as one of them said, 'The Shiloh Church thanks you so much!" 

I said "You're so welcome" even as it dawned on me, this wasn't the same church as before.

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