Human

The good doesn’t outweigh the bad

but it does give me a taste of 

something I want more of

and pulls me through life with

an almost foolish kind of hope

and leads me from 

faith to

faith to

faith, almost like I’m 

swinging on monkey bars,

like a little child,

believing and trusting and tasting that 

something solid and real will 

hold me and lead me

to more,

to all.

_____________________________________

My Grandpa died just a couple days after Thanksgiving last year. So, I’d rather skip Thanksgiving today. The holiday, and offering up a sacrifice of thanksgiving in general, have grown increasingly painful. I guess that’s why it’s called a “sacrifice.” And I understand why God commands it. It’s not for His own benefit.

Remembering what is good in our lives reminds us of those tastes of heaven He so freely gives us — we need these. How hopeless we’d become without such sweet tastes of Home.

Have you ever heard of that statistic that says it takes six positive words to counter every single negative word? I really think it’s because all that is bad and painful and wicked belongs to this world.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12 CSB

This world, as it is, cannot hold the fullness of all that is good and right and true. But goodness and righteousness and truth still belong to us who are in Christ Jesus — and we belong to Him. And this world is not our Home. We are like nomads, waiting for the Kingdom that is both now and not yet when we will then “know fully” as we are fully known.

I think thanksgiving is like a lifeline back to all these things we were actually made for, like those wells and altars the Israelites built in remembrance to what God had done for them as they walked the wilderness for 40 years (see the book of Exodus).

O God, help us remember.

Even in the midst of all our efforts to repress and push away, help us to open ourselves to these tastes of Home.

For it is these gifts that feed our faith and hope and trust in You, the Maker of our souls.

Thanks be to God for His faithful love that always shows up, even when it’s painful to see it.

Amen.