Living out the Thanks...

So, when the  Thanks-giving gets hard...

Perhaps we just get on with the Giving.  And we find to our amazement that the Thanks flows Abundant.

Anger and Bitterness.  They just melt under the heat.

Truly... It was a gift we gave this past weekend that had our hearts overflowing.  In God's gracious upside down kingdom... this is truth.

Several months ago, one of our dear friends lost her father.  Grief.  It ran hard and deep. 

Her mother, widowed and now alone on the family farm... Keeping it together, praying through the tough, walking the journey.

And there was this dry creek on the farm.

Swollen wide when the rains came thru in season, it had become bogged in with broken branches and twisted roots and sodden leaves.  Each rain bringing more messy burden to the tiny creek.

It needed help.

And so we gathered.  Friends with saws and pruners.  Gloved hands and welcome wheelbarrows.

It was a gift to fellowship together as we made light of the work.

As the day meandered past noon, the little creek began to smile.  Shaggy limbs were trimmed back, dead growth whittled away, rotting leaf litter raked clean...

 

The tiny footbridge made whole again...firewood stacked for the coming winter...

 

We laughed through water and brownie breaks...

 

And enjoyed the warmth and love of lunch prepared by the sweetest of souls.

The Giving turned to Thanks.

It is not a hard thing to

"Carry one another's burdens"

                                Galatians 6:2

It is a glorious gift to share in one another's journeys... even the most difficult.

God knew.

He knew we'd need each other.

And out of our obedience to His call,

He blesses with a Giving of Thanks.

Hearts tendered to Him,

Souls ministered to out of infinite Grace.

Learning to Live out the Thanks,

Day by Day

Moment by Moment...

Graced with Thanksgiving.  Truly!