Happy Thanksgiving!
"Fill Thou my life, O Lord, my God,
In every part with praise." Horatius Bonar
Woke up this morning thinking of pilgrims. Pilgrim families peering over the deck of the Mayflower at the cold, inhospitable shores of New England. Was it a gloomy day? Rain, snow? Or perhaps a cold, thin sun shone--bright but no warmth? Don't you wonder what they thought? Tired and sick and cold and dirty and hungry as they all were.
And what about the children? Did they cry and complain? Did they play and run around the decks in excitement while their weary and worn parents sighed with happy resignation? Who knows. But somehow, knowing our Pilgrim ancestors, I tend to doubt there was much complaining or discouragement or frustration.
Because we do know that when they spotted land, the first thing the pilgrims chose to do was rejoice. They fell to their knees, we are told, and celebrated by reading Psalm 100.
So much hardship behind them; so much suffering and death ahead of them. Yet they rejoiced in God's goodness, knowing by faith that He was at work. In all of it--good and bad.
God has not promised any of us a perfect life. He has promised us a redeemed life.
Not the pilgrims, not anyone on this planet, and certainly not a single one of us will go through this life unscarred by sorrow and suffering. We will all endure times of long, hard waiting. We will all know what it is to be desperately disappointed or defeated.
We will have experience sudden, mystifying tragedies--where we wonder, "God where were You? Lord what are You doing?" I love what Vance Havner said about this: "God marks some of our days, 'Will explain later.'"
When Havner lost his young wife to disease, he was disconsolate. But he later wrote:
"When before the throne we stand in Him complete, all the riddles that puzzle us here will fall into place and we shall know in fulfillment what we now believe in faith--that all things work together for good in His eternal purpose. No longer will we cry 'My God, why?' Instead, 'alas' will become 'Alleluia,' all question marks will be straightened into exclamation points, sorrow will change to singing, and pain will be lost in praise."
Amen, Lord. And so we can praise Him today, as we look back in gratitude and look ahead in trust--believing, knowing, He will work out all things finally and ultimately for good... for great and glorious good.
No, none of us will live the perfect life... but we can experience something infinitely better in the end: the resurrected, redeemed life. For our Savior declared, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me, shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Yes, Lord. We believe, You are the Resurrection and the Life... the One who redeems hearts and resurrects broken lives.
So today, might we praise the One who is the Resurrection and the Life and who is even now, even in the hardest or darkest or the most mystifying and unexplainable circumstances in our lives, or the lives of those we love, working to bring resurrection and redemption. And one day, every single "'alas' will change to 'Alleluia.'"
Until them, we choose, like the pilgrims, to praise and thank by faith in the forever faithful One.
To God--the Resurrection and the Life--be the glory.
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