"I invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens.
And I recommend to them that they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union."
Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation of Thanksgiving, 3 October 1863
And there are other times when we refuse to bend or bow, and to defer to anything but ourselves, in a kind of careless self-sufficiency and foolish pride.
And then God brings us down to our knees first, as he has done for me and for us all, to remind us, in His loving kindness, of who we are, and how to be grateful for all that we have been given.
"We pray for the big things, and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small, and yet really not so small, blessings.”I remember you all in my thoughts and prayers.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength— but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusion of strength on which you depended before you knew it."
Léon Bloy
And I thank God for allowing an old man to continue to exchange greetings with his friends around the world, and at times bring a little light and joy to their hearts, as they do for him.
Be kind to those who are around your table today, even those who may be 'difficult.'
We all have them. And some of us might even be them.
Need little - Want less - Love more.
For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
