Thanksgiving 1959

Happy Sunday. Happy Thanksgiving. My first Thanksgiving was 65 years ago, 1959. Of course, I don't remember any of it; I was not quite 3 months old. I'm sure I was with my family: father, mother, three brothers, my favorite sister, maybe that day grandparents, and were they are aunts, uncles, cousins? I don't know.

What I do know is that there have been a lot of changes since that day. My parents have been long gone. My oldest brother has passed. My grandparents are gone as well, aunts, uncles, all gone. A lot of water has passed under the bridge in those years.

The table that we sit at is different now. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife, two great kids, two great spouses for my kids, and five perfect grandchildren, with one on the way. Through all of the changes, there has, of course, been one constant: God. He's been with me through every moment, the good, the bad.

Today I'm going to use a verse that I've never used at Thanksgiving. It's from the Book of Job. If you recall the Book of Job, it begins with a great deal of trouble and heartache for Job. Job learns and rapid fire that he's lost his donkeys and his oxen and his sheep and his camels and a bunch of his ser servants and all of his children in a matter of hours.

Verses 2 and three of Job chapter 1 give us the numbers he began with. There we are told, "He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 donkeys, and and he had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East." This great man suffered unfathomable loss.

I love what Job said in verse 21 after all of this loss. He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised." Ien impressed. Job's faith is an inspiration to me.

In my 65 years, I have lost loved ones, and I have been with countless others who have done the same. Today I can say the same about my life: the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. Thanksgiving is a time to focus on what God has added and also a time to reflect on those that are no longer with us.

I'm so very thankful for those that God has chosen to give me. Some will gather at my table on Thursday, and some will be at the Lord's great table in their eternal home. Through it all, good days and bad days, God has been so faithful. Lamentations 3:22 and 23 tells us this: "The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin aresh each morning." God is faithful.

Today I thought I would share just a few stories about God's faithfulness that make me thankful, and I've got a boatload of them, but I just chose a few. Just this week, my friend Tom was our house guest for a couple of nights. Tom was my minister of youth when I was was in my formative years. We've kept in touch, and he's still changing this world for the better.

About 15 years ago, Tom Tom was diagnosed with cancer, and while it slowed him down for a while, he still traveled this world on mission trips for Jesus. He stopped at my house on his way to help feed a community in one of the poorest areas in aul Appalachia, and Tom gives credit to God for his ability to keep going. Tom's faithfulness to God and God's faithfulness to Tom makes me thankful.

Just this past week, my best friend from college had a birthday. Several years ago, our church in Indiana decided to donate our church bus to a church in Mississippi. We weren't using it anymore, and it mostly just sat, and that's not good for a vehicle. And so Wally came to Indiana to drive the bus home to Jackson, Mississippi. That's a pretty good drive, 650 plus miles.

On his way home, while he had about six flat tires because they were dry rotted, and the muffler fell off the bus, and I think a few other things happened. What should have taken 10 hours took two days. Wally was doing this to help an inner city church, and this mission trip, it just became a nightmare. We laugh about it now, but in the midst of all of that, I wonder if he'd ever talk to me again.

Friendships can survive all sorts of things. God has blessed me with faithful friends, and for that I am thankful. We've had a lot of good times, but there's been some tough ones. I remember sitting with a friend after the death of his wife. I was a young pastor, and Mr. Henson was old and wise. He was one godly man.

When I got to his house, he looked at me and said, "God has been so good to me." For the next several hours, he talked about his wife and their life together. That day he chose to concentrate on what he had, not on what he lost. I don't remember the exact number, but i' guess that they'd been married for well over 50 years.

In my 65 years, I've seen gain and loss, good and bad, blessings and head scratchers, and through it all, God has been right there. I am thankful, through the good, through the bad, that God is there. I agree with Job: the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. As you gather this week, remember all that he has done for you. Praise his name.

Pray with me. Father God, thank you for being a constant in this changing world. Thank you that you are with us in the bad days and in the good days. Thank you that you have given more than you have taken away, and even when we are gone away, those of us in Christ, you'll give us beyond our comprehension. Bless us as we gather. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thanks for watching.