Lately it seems our culture has sidelined Thanksgiving. This year it seems especially acute. With the prevailing supply chain issues, Black Friday has stretched into Black November. I feel like lately Thanksgiving has become a mere rest stop, nothing more than a necessary hurdle in the fast lane to Christmas. Yet after the year we have had, I feel a need to camp on thanksgiving. Not the holiday, not the celebration of an event that happened hundreds of years ago, but on the meaning of the actual word: the expression of gratitude, especially to God.
We as a family have so much to be thankful for. Through a season of heartache, personal and family struggles, and a year when nothing felt simple or safe we have seen the goodness of Jesus. We have seen Him through people He has sent across our paths, through events we could not have orchestrated, and through you; those who partner with us in prayer. We could not have made it through this year with out your interceding on our behalf. As I think about the year, there were many times I simply wanted the familiar, the comfort of the known, but this year Jesus wanted to take us higher up and further in. I did not always go willingly, but I am glad we did; it did not feel safe, but I knew He was good. For that we are thankful.
No matter where this November day finds you, we pray you would know His goodness, even if the storm rages around you. To that end, I want to leave you with a conversation I have contemplated often, especially over the last year. It is one of my favorite exchanges from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan.
“Aslan?” said Mr. Beaver, “Why don’t you know? He’s the King. . . . It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus. . . .”
“Is—is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good."
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