Thanksgiving was a rough day. God’s timing is always interesting – in my last post when I wrote “What about the little things? What about the painful things? Are we thankful for those? “… yep, that pretty much sums it up.

I very much enjoyed getting a craft ready for AG to do yesterday morning. We had taken pictures of all the things she said she wanted to thank God for – in classic kid style, she was thankful for her balls, crayons, and doll in addition to her Bible, brother, house, etc. It was a sweet time to put that together with her and hear her talk about what she wanted to thank God for. I gave her a cutout of a cross and asked why we should thank God for that, and she said, “Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins.” Yes, He did. Amen.

Along with this reflection on thankfulness for the little things, we also are praying for strength to be grateful for the pain. My husband’s mother has gone through several rounds of battling cancer. Nine years ago, a huge melon-sized tumor was found and removed from her abdomen. Two years ago, spots were found on her lungs. Last week, after experiencing terrible pain she went into the hospital and another enormous tumor was found in her abdomen – 10 inches by 3 inches, basically the size of a loaf of bread stretching from side to side. All of the family has been hoping and praying it was operable.

Yesterday morning when we arrived at NP’s brother’s house, we were told that we needed to call his parents right away. In that conversation with his mom, NP found out that the tumor is inoperable. It involves too many major organs, and the doctors are shocked at how fast it has grown. We were told that it will probably be a couple of months before she goes ahead of us to our Savior.

We’re still very much in shock and are barely comprehending what is happening at this point. I often think of how glib Christians can sound when we assure others that “they’re going to a better place,” and that somehow knowing that our loved one is going to heaven makes death a good thing.

First of all, seeing our Savior will be unbelievable – and knowing Mom, that is exactly where she wants to be. Nothing is bad about heaven, and yes, the end of her pain and suffering and the entrance into an eternity with Jesus makes our pain of anticipating losing her much less. But friends, death should never sit well with us. It was never supposed to be this way!

I will discuss this more in depth when we get to the book of Ecclesiastes, but let me say now: as much as we celebrate the reassurance of where she will be and when we will see her again, we weep and mourn and hate cancer with every fiber of our being. And we ask our Father for strength to trust Him and thank Him through the pain and sadness ahead. Please pray for my dear husband and his family.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Revelation 21:3-5

Watching and listening to people this time of year intrigues me. In the celebration of Thanksgiving, we set aside time to thank our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, our Abba Father for all that He has blessed us with. Sadly, we have turned this amazing opportunity to pause and corporately thank Him into a glutenous feast with a cardboard turkey centerpiece. If you are a crafty-Martha-Stewart-type, perhaps your centerpiece is a cornucopia handcrafted out of fresh picked willow branches, but nevertheless, we often miss the point.

Even in our attempts to make the holiday more meaningful, it often seems to ring hollow. Go around the table and say what you are thankful for – “my family,” “my job,” “this house,” whatever. Not that it’s bad to be thankful for these things, but are we truly thankful people? What about the little things? What about the painful things? Are we thankful for those?

…And if we were genuinely thankful people, how different would “black Friday” be?

I ventured out to JoAnn fabrics and Kohls last year on Black Friday – only the second time I remember ever doing that. I was almost 7 months pregnant and had AG with me, who was at that time 19 months old. Cranky older women were grabbing shopping carts before I could get to them so that they didn’t have to carry their purses and the 20 bolts of fabric they snatched up before someone else saw them. Apparently, it didn’t even matter what kind of fabric it was. They would hold onto it like birds of prey and circle the cutting table for recently set-aside options that they might like better. (Who knew that 60 year old quilters could be so mean?)

I came home that day exhausted and frustrated and feeling invisible. I had to laugh to myself as I thought, “And a very Merry Christmas to you, too.”

I love 2 Corinthians chapter 9 – Paul was writing to the Corinthian church and was reminding them of the pledge they had made to support and help their needy brothers and sisters in Christ in Jerusalem. In verse 5, he says he was sending some other brothers to “finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.” John MacArthur notes, “[grudgingly is] more clearly translated ‘covetousness’ or ‘greed,’ it denotes a grasping to get more and keep it at the expense of others. This attitude emphasizes selfishness and pride, which can have a detrimental effect on giving, and is natural for unbelievers, but should not be for professed believers.”

Is that convicting to you? It is to me. “A grasping to get more and keep it at the expense of others.” Remember what it means to give thanks. Nothing we have is ours – it is entrusted to us by God. If we truly believe that He owns it all, how would that change the way we live? I surely do not think that we can have a genuine, humble heart of gratitude on one day and then go out the next day and brawl over a bolt of fabric like animals. Notice how Paul describes the impact of the Corinthians’ choosing to give sacrificially:

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (9:12-14)

If we are followers of Jesus Christ, our genuine hearts of gratitude will motivate us to act. To give, to serve, to love – as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to our Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. To recognize that our gifts back to Him pale in comparison with his “indescribable gift” in Jesus Christ.

This year, I want to think of Thanksgiving and Christmas as going hand in hand. May I be truly thankful, not just for material blessings or the people in my life, although I really am deeply thankful for them. May I realize that we serve a great and gracious God who has given something indescribable to us – a personal relationship with the Almighty One. That humble scene of the babe lying in the manger led to the cross – and the ability for mere fallen mortals to enter the throne room of heaven and call the Creator of the universe, “Abba” – “Daddy.” This is no light thing to be taken for granted. It should rock our lives.

Thanksgiving cannot be about the turkey. Christmas cannot be about the presents. Oh, Father, forgive us for marginalizing you in our lives! It is easy to point to our culture and say, “evil!,” while entertaining the same vanity in our own lives. Because you have given us everything, we humbly thank you. May it not be just words on our lips – may it change the way we live. And may we not forget to give You the highest gift we can this Christmas – everything we are, everything we have. How do you wish to use us, Father? May we do it cheerfully as an expression of thanks.

Ah, the question that I hear about 1,000 times a day. I don’t know if it is AG’s deep fondness for graham crackers or her love of order and predictability that causes her to obsess about snack time, but after a while it is irritating! Actually, as I was typing this I heard a little voice say, “Is it snack time?” And no, it’s not because she’s hungry. Often she will finish her breakfast, wipe her face, and ask as she gets down, “Is it snack time?”

I had seen this idea in Wondertime magazine a while back for making a child’s first clock, so a couple of months ago I decided to make it and see if it helped our snack time issue. I LOVE IT.

This clock has animals all around the outside with each number. The hour hand has a turtle, the minute hand has a squirrel, and the second hand has a hummingbird. I printed the template from wondertime’s website and then found a cheap seasonal clock from Salvation Army. It was marked $.99, but it was half-off day! So, my clock would have cost $.50, but then when I got home and put a battery in it, it didn’t work. Arg. We bought a new clock kit from JoAnn (affectionally referred to as “the green store” at our house) which cost $5-6 with a coupon. Still pretty cheap.

I painted the face of the clock white (to cover the super lovely snowman motif that it originally had), covered the template with contact paper, and glued on the clock face and the animals to the clock hands. Voila.

It has been really nice for me – and AG is absorbing a lot of familiarity with clocks at the same time. She knows that when the turtle is at the fox and the squirrel is at the bear, Word World is on. We have a morning snack when the turtle is at the bunnies. When the the turtle gets to the bear, it’s lunchtime. The turtle is at the bluebird? Time for naps.

I still am frequently asked about snack time, but I have my standard answer: “Go look at your clock.” Often AG will come back a little downcast and say, “It’s not snack time. The turtle is still at the fox.” We also have used it for when meals end – she is starting to get overly pokey when she’s eating! Rather than just always urging her to take bites and hurry up, I can say, “When the squirrel gets to the beaver, lunch is all done.” Usually that urges her on. Especially after a couple of times of not getting a cookie or something because she used up all of her lunch time pushing her noodles around the plate.

We have started talking about how the squirrel runs all the way around the clock while the turtle moves from one animal to another. When the hummingbird goes all the way around the clock, that is one minute. When the squirrel runs all the way around the clock, that is one hour. When the turtle goes all the way around the clock two times, that is one day.

She knows her numbers, so I think we will soon start talking about actual “o’clock times” – she understands how the clock moves, and I think it will be a fairly natural transition.

Want to make your own? Check out the template and instructions on wondertime.com.

It is a cold snowy day here in NE Ohio, and as I am sipping my hot-chocolate/ coffee/ french vanilla creamer mixture here as I blog, I thought I would add the recipe for your enjoyment! My mother-in-law gave this recipe to me a few years ago and it is well-loved. Little jars of this make great gifts, too.

Hot Chocolate Mix

8 qt. box powdered milk
1 lb. Nestles Quick
16 oz. powdered creamer
1-2 cu. powdered sugar

Mix ingredients together well.
[this makes a large container that usually lasts us the winter!]