I’ve started early this year.
I’m paying attention to the arrival of the light, watching the sunrise spread a layer of clear radiance across the cold ground. My long-time Advent practice has come looking for me and has found me in the midst of the Thanksgiving season.
I’m not sorry.
Whenever I read the morning verses in Lamentations, my brain immediately cues up the traditional hymn:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.”
(Lamentations 3:22-23)
“Morning by morning new mercies I see.”
Do I?
If my heart is grateful and humble;
If I am open to the truth that everything is a gift;
If I maintain a posture of trust toward the Father of Mercies,
Then I see them.
But on mornings when my heart is being drawn toward the “not given,”
When I have failed to see the mercy in God’s refusals,
Or the kindness in his delays,
I am blind to the blessings and quickly become a grace amnesiac.
Lord God, here’s my heart and my day.
Thank you for ten thousand blessings in the past
And for the mercies that have landed here this morning,
Fresh and new.
Heal my blindness,
Forgive my faithless discontent,
And sweep out the ashes of pride that linger.
May gratitude be my song as the sun takes over the sky—
Even on days when I don’t see it shining.
“Morning by morning new mercies I see.” Do I?
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Holding You in the Light,
A Bible App Devotional Plan for the Season of Gratitude
For those of us in the United States, Thanksgiving falls in November. However, gratitude is not circumscribed by geographic boundaries. Nor do we need a calendar’s permission to leave room for gratitude, so whether you think of this series of devotionals as heart preparation for the coming season or simply want to retune your heart to the key of thanks, this is your invitation to pay attention to the steady stream of blessing that comes to us through God’s love. May we enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, no matter what the season of the year.
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One of my all time favorite hymns. Cece Winans does it so well.
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I just snapped a quick photo of our sunrise this morning; our windows don’t actually face the sunrise but the skies still put on a pretty show most days and today there are lovely pink clouds mixed with dark gray ones against the light blue sky. It’s so pretty– particularly when it’s reflected back on the water. I find it calming to wake slowly with the sunrise.
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