“But thanks be to God”: A Seventeenth Reflection

Today is the day once designated by the civil government of these United States to be devoted to public thanksgiving to our Creator for the gracious gifts his divine Providence has lavished upon us. It is thus fitting for me to, as I have done each year since my first Thanksgiving reflection in 2009, publicly express my gratitude for specific blessings, especially those newly experienced or newly remembered since my last such expression.

Introduction

I have begun each year’s post with a statement that “Today is the day designated …” or “Today is the day once designated …”, but this year I feel I should expand on that slightly. In 1789, George Washington began a proclamation of the fourth Thursday of November of that year as a national day of thanksgiving with the statement, which by the grammar of the proclamation he understood to be “a truth universally acknowledged,” that “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.” He then went on to recommend that day “to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks … and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—[and] to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually.”

First and foremost, I hope I will never cease to be grateful that

the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father. I trust in him so completely that I have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul. Moreover, whatever evil he sends upon me in this troubled life he will turn to my good, for he is able to do it, being almighty God, and is determined to do it, being a faithful Father.

I am learning to trust that, as a favorite hymn says,

Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet am I not forsaken,
My Father’s care
Is around me there,
He holds me that I shall not fall,
And so to Him I leave it all.

Writing

As so often in recent years, the points of gratitude that come next most immediately to mind have to do with my writing.

In God’s sovereign provision, I found a designer and commissioned a cover for Dreams and Prayers, my second poetry collection, and then about a month ago I finally released the book to the world. Regardless of how the book fares (or not) in “the marketplace,” I am grateful for God’s grace in all this.

I am also grateful that God continues to give me poetry to write, so that I have managed to post twenty-five poems on this blog since this time last year, I have poems scheduled at the same pace through next September, and I have more than fifteen completed poems waiting to be added to that queue. I hope that he will grant more inspiration, so that I can get somewhat further “ahead” and can clear some of my backlog of fragments by completing them, and I am praying for guidance as to the thematic direction and title of a possible third collection, but what he has enabled me to write so far is already more than I had dreamed in my youth.

On the other hand, I am grateful for God’s help that enabled me to finish my draft of The Invasion this past spring, after several years of neglect and then a few years of more focused effort in my “free” time. I am also grateful for the encouragement and critique that I have received from several sources in this year—critique which I am currently endeavoring to apply as I revise.

Relatedly, I am grateful for the opportunity and means to attend the “Realm Makers” Christian writers’ conference in Grand Rapids this past summer. While not exactly everything that I had hoped, I was blessed and encouraged, and if it be God’s will I hope to attend next year’s (nowhere near as conveniently located) conference as well.

Employment

I am once again grateful that God has provided me with employment in satisfying work with skillful colleagues and supportive managers—by which he has ordained that many of my needs be supplied, and that others’ needs (in a different sense, and under the current regulatory regime) be met.

Given recent events, I am grateful that this employment is (humanly speaking) fairly secure, and on terms generous enough that I could view the recent government shutdown as an enforced vacation with minimal impact on my personal finances.

I am once again grateful that God permits me to live, and work, “in the bosom of my family” for this season of my life.

I am grateful that earlier this year (if I am remembering correctly) several projects I had had a hand in were finally released to our customers, and were well received.

Perhaps most of all in this area, I am again (or still) grateful that God has chosen to provide for me with such abundance that I am able, and he permits me the honor, to share in the support of the work of his kingdom.

Conclusion

I have much to be grateful to God for, far more than my time and space today permit me to tell, and far more than my finite and incompletely-sanctified mind can remember. Despite certain aspects of my life these past years that I would describe as “bitter,” God has in everything dealt far more mercifully and graciously with me than I deserve, so that I am still (when I am honest) obliged to confess, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.”

As I have for the past several years, I will again close with this verse from another favorite hymn:

Praise him for his grace and favor
To our fathers in distress;
Praise him, still the same as ever
Slow to chide and swift to bless:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Glorious in his faithfulness.