It doesn't happen terribly often anymore that my mind is so drawn to a thought that I crawl out of my warm bed, take to this blog and attempt to share it. Tonight is such a night when I have done so, and finding a chill in the air of a farmhouse with dwindling coals in the wood stove, have donned a pink corduroy jacket to sit and try to stir someone else's thoughts with words from my own simple heart.
In one minute, as I sit at this keyboard and screen, Thanksgiving 2015 will be behind us. By the time this actual posting, with all its meanderings, is seen on this page, Thanksgiving 2015 will be over, moving farther and farther into the collective past of our Nation, and soon will be referred to as last Thanksgiving.
This Thanksgiving was pitted with concerns of terrorist threats in our country and abroad. On the heels of terrorist attacks in Beirut, France, and a shut down in Brussels, many of us wondered if we would make it through Thanksgiving Day without incident. At this writing I can say, so far, so good.
In the morning, the television news reporters will, no doubt, share stories of Black Friday shenanigans that have occurred while many or most of us slept (or sat at key boards in corduroy jackets typing). I can only pray, in moments of quiet solitude as I type, that our malls and stores will not be targets of those who are full of hatred for anyone who does not believe the same way these terrorists believe. And that thought, the thought that these terrorists do hate - that they hate with a violent hatred - is a part of the thought that drew me from my bed into this chill November farmhouse air.
I know terrorists won't want to hear this but terrorism inspires love and gratitude in the hearts of men.
In the same way "absence makes the heart grow fonder," terrorism inspires love and gratitude in the hearts of men. When we no longer have the same sense of security we had before, we miss that sense of security. When we are unsure of our safety as we congregate in malls or shopping centers, we miss that sense of safety. When we do not know that our loved ones are any more secure than Paris, France was two weeks ago today we cherish all the more every single moment we get to spend with that family, with those friends, with those neighbors. And, even though our heads will tell us we should never take any of those things for granted, that we should always treat each moment as if it will be the last, none of us do, we just don't, let's admit that we don't do as we should for once. We take for granted the things we have and we savor the things we suspect we are about to lose, or that are under threat of loss and we all acutely feel, whether we admit it or not, whether we allow our minds to go there or not, that we may lose our beyond-words-special way of life in America.
So this year, Thanksgiving 2015: The dinner tasted a little more delicious, the desserts a little more delectable. The company I shared was a little sweeter and more dear than I remembered it being before. Our freedoms and liberties, our very way of American life seems more valuable, our military service men and women seemed more precious as they served without benefit of spending the day with their families.
I don't know, maybe I'm just turning into a soft-hearted old woman but I don't think so, I think terrorism inspires love and gratitude in the hearts of men, and I think that is the exact opposite of what terrorists would like...they want us in fear, not grateful for the love we share and the lives we enjoy, not continuing to set aside days of gratitude for what God has given us, our "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)
"...He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" (Matthew 8:26,27)We do not marvel enough at the power of our Lord. We need to remember and pray to Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" (Matthew 8:25) He can deliver "great calm," we must ask.
