It's that time of year again. The annual season in which families all around come together to give thanks for their blessings. But that's easier said than done. How do you have a thankful heart amidst loss and pain? This Thanksgiving falls on the anniversary of my grandmother's death. It makes two years without her. How am I supposed to remain joyful this holiday when all I can think about is how empty our dinner table seems without her? When I tear up just walking past the room she used to live in right next to mine? It seems as though everywhere I look, there's grief. I know I can't be the only one struggling this broken November to see the light of joy in the darkness of my pain. Because honestly, who doesn’t watch the news and get misty-eyed seeing glimpses of the sorrowful circumstances our world holds? Who doesn’t grieve for what and who used to be? Who doesn't feel crushed when their dreams and plans aren't working how they planned? How exactly does one sit around a happy table of turkey and pie, bowing their head in thanks when parts of them are falling apart?
For me, the answer is summed up in the 21 words Psalm 91:2 gives us: "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High."
This is it. This is the truth I have to literally write out over and over to implant it in my heart and mind, the truth I cling to. It is a GOOD thing to give thanks to the Lord. It is a good thing to lift up our weary and heavy heads to Him in our mourning. It is a good thing to give thanks. To proclaim that God is wholly good even when the world is the utter opposite. In the midst of deaths, divorces, genocides and all around darkness, it is so much easier to side with the unbeliever's doubt of any goodness left in this world. It's easier to shake our fist at Him and refuse to be thankful for this confusion.
But He never said it would be easy. It is GOOD to be grateful to Him for all circumstances, even the broken ones, because hasn't He always been good to us in return? Hasn't He always provided and loved us? That “God is good” verse is not a meaningless phrase when all is well, but a lifeline when everything is painfully broken.
And it's because of that we will incessantly confess His goodness. No matter what this world throws at us, we will thank Him for his grace.We won’t stop believing that God is good. And that's why we still give thanks. Because giving thanks when it's hard beautifully transforms our broken pain from a dark pit to a cheerful song, proclaiming the constant goodness of God.
Every time we give thanks, it's pointing all things back to Him as they should be.
Thanksgiving in all ways confesses the deep and never-changing goodness of God no matter what.
So this year, I will continue to bow my head at the table and give thanks to my Savior. I'll bow my head every day, believing in His relentless redemption and I will confess the goodness of God in my brokeness. Will you?
