Advent
November 26, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith. –1 Thessalonians 3:9-10

I have been rather grumbly of late. Overbooked myself this fall and yet, I do not feel I accomplished much at all. Oh, I did a lot, completing many tasks, meeting most deadlines, running hither and skitter. But did I do anything that actually made the world more just?

Much of my busyness was tied up about a week ago and for the first time in a few months I have had time to reflect on the outcomes of my work. I am a strong goal oriented person and I like to see the fruits of my labor. Do you think Abraham might have thought that also? He received the promise of God to be the father of a great nation but he only saw one, perhaps two generations of it. Hebrews 11:13a states All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.

I do need to have my faith restored and Thanksgiving is a good time to see and celebrate the acts of God in our world today. I am thankful for the voices that speak love instead of hate. I am thankful for the missionary I met last year in Turkey who is today helping refugees, pregnant women and those with newborns from the Middle East, survive and thrive. I am thankful for interfaith groups that work to increase understanding. I am thankful for a President along with some Governors, Senators, Representatives, and other government officials willing to go against the wave of hysteria and seek lasting solutions that foster wholeness in our fragmented world. And most importantly, I am thankful that God sent Jesus Christ into the world and into my life to focus my vision beyond the little tasks I have been given as a part of his kingdom building. Let His kingdom come; His will be done.

Prayer:
Now thank we all our God
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.* Amen.

*First verse of Now Thank We All Our God by Martin Rinckart see at http://www.hymnary.org/text/now_thank_we_all_our_god

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.