Thankful

I will being heading out to Chicago for several days to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday so I won’t be posting again until next week. I did publish several posts in the last few days if you haven’t read them yet.

As I write this my heart is so full of thanksgiving. First of all, for Jesus and the Father’s love, who rescued me from myself and brought me into His Divine Dance–who constantly calls me to step out of my boat filled with limitations and fears, onto His vast ocean called Love where there is no shore! There are no words to describe how grateful I am for His transforming love.

I’m thankful for my beautiful wife. She completes me, inspires me, and is my best friend and true love. In fact,  everything I know about love and romance I’ve learned from her. And no one understands the heartbeat of the Father’s love and true intimacy better than she does. She’s brilliant, a creative artist, and a better writer than me. I love how we share our life together and push each other into the depths of God’s grace and love, inspiring one another to do greater things than we ever would do on our own.

I’m thankful for my children. The picture above was from a Chicago trip last August–it’s with my wife, my three sons, and new daughter-in-law (which I’m also SO thankful for!) I am SO blessed! In my completely unbiased opinion, they’re all amazing and uniquely gifted–and besides, they can all pummel me and Maureen in Scrabble. 🙂  Sadly, because of distance, school, work, etc., we won’t be together for this Thanksgiving. But they will be very much in our hearts this holiday season.

I’m thankful for our extended family. I love all of them–brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces…and we have LOTS of them on both sides–living all over the country–and they are great people to know.

I’m thankful for my church family. They are great friends and awesome lovers of God’s presence, full of love and acceptance for all. I love the freedom of expression we have in worship. I love the atmosphere and culture of Heaven we’re cultivating here, and it’s all because their hearts have gladly received the Father’s love. And we love each other a lot too.

Finally, I’m thankful for YOU! I am SO grateful that you value what I have to say and have joined in the conversation here. You have blessed me and inspired me more than you know. I love you all too!

Before I go, I will leave you with a short video I put together with some furry friends I found on the Internet. I hope it makes you laugh and think about being thankful. And I pray you have a very blessed Thanksgiving and are able to be with the people that you are thankful for.

You are SO loved!
Mel

See you when I get back!

“in everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1Thess.5:18