Thank and Trust

     Our favorite old pilgrims and indians--battered and weathered--but still standing tall and firm on our dining room table.  They are missing a few feathers; the pilgrim's pumpkin has been superglued back on many a time; they all suffer from multiple chips and dings due to falling over and to the children playing with them over all the years. But isn't that what the pilgrims are all about--perseverance, strength, indomitable faith in their Savior even in the midst of overwhelming difficulties and suffering and sorrow?
      I really love the pilgrims.  We have collected a number of them over the years, but these will always be my favorites because we got them when our oldest daughter, Mary Norris, was still a baby.  We have them all over the house this time of year as a reminder to thank the Lord--no matter the circumstances--for His goodness and His greatness and to trust Him.  Thank and trust.  Thank and trust.
     Early yesterday morning when I awoke, it was dark, cold, raining hard and I could hear rumbling thunder in the distance.  And I'm kept thinking of two things: all those struggling folks dealing with the destruction from Hurricane Sandy... and the pilgrims.  They, too, knew a thing or two about storms.  Ten long, tempestuous weeks at sea on the Mayflower before arriving in the frigid winter month of November off the coast of New England.  The passengers were weak from prolonged seasickness,  ill with fevers, chills, and colds.  No fresh food, hungry, cold, filthy.  And just think, when they finally arrived, there were no hot showers or warm fires or clean, dry clothes, or toasty homes to greet them.  Just heavy snow and dense forests and howling winds and icy water.  As the days of that first brutal winter wore on, more and more members of this small band of pilgrims sickened and died.  By that first spring, half of those who had arrived on the Mayflower just a few months earlier now lay in shallow graves on the windswept hillside.
     Yet the first thing the pilgrims did when they first spotted land from the deck of the Mayflower was to fall to their knees, shout for joy, and celebrate by reading Ps. 100.

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him; bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting,
And His faithfulness to all generations.

     And despite all they endured, all the death and deprivation, the pilgrims were a people of praise.  Such gratitude in the face of unimaginable hardship--if they could offer a sacrifice of praise, how can we not do likewise?  John Piper has written, "Remembering our dependence on past mercies kindles gratitude.  Gratitude is past-oriented dependence; faith is future-oriented dependence.  Both forms of dependency are humble, self-forgetting and God-exalting.  If we do not believe that we are deeply dependent on God for all we have or hope to have, then the very spring of gratitude and faith runs dry."  It's all from Him; it's all by Him; it's all through Him; it's for Him.
     Barbara Rainey has written that "being thankful forces us to take our eyes off ourselves and put them on the Lord.  Giving up our self-focus is the kind of denial that pleases God."  That's why the Bible often calls it a "sacrifice" of thanksgiving.  And I know I could use a lot less self-focus and a lot more God-focus!  It's hard to praise and thank when we are fixated on ourselves and our circumstances.
     So today, might we remember God's past faithfulness in our lives and in the lives of those courageous men, women and children who came to these shores to worship and live in freedom.  And in remembering, might we choose to thank and to trust.  Thank God for the known past and trust God for the unknown future.... but a future that He holds in His perfect, powerful hands.
     And if He's holding the future, then we are totally, eternally secure.  "His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations."  To God be the glory.