A Time for Thanksgiving

Psalm 126

A song of ascents.  When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
   we were like those who dreamed.
 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
   our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
   “The LORD has done great things for them.”
 The LORD has done great things for us,
   and we are filled with joy.
  Restore our fortunes,LORD,
   like streams in the Negev.
 Those who sow with tears
   will reap with songs of joy.
 Those who go out weeping,
   carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
   carrying sheaves with them.


Well.... this semester is almost over! So crazy.. it went by so incredibly crazy fast.  Anyways... Thanksgiving is upon us once more!! Happy day!
 I recently came to the realization that a lot of major things have happened to me around Thanksgiving time, or right beforehand. Mostly, Thanksgiving reminds me of home-comings. As I have been counting down the days to go home and see my family and spend time with my siblings, I got to thinking about how thankful I am for Thanksgiving!


Thanksgiving. I actually looked up that word to see what other people define it as and this is what I got: "The expression of gratitude, especially to God." Yes. That's what I would call it. Besides it being a feast with turkeys and can-shaped cranberry jelly... it's an expression of gratitude to God.  


I think the first time that I actually realized how thankful I was for what I had was Thanksgiving of 2006. I was 15 years old, a sophomore in high school and had just experienced my first trip out of the U.S.
 China is a beautiful country, the people are kind, and there's much to see. But, my experience in China made me realize a lot of things I had that other people don't have. Also, being without things I had made me more thankful for them. I missed things like drinking out of a faucet, sunshine, and quietness. I remember when I got home I took a notebook and pen and made a list of everything I was thankful for and it came out to be a list of over 200 different things. Although I still take some of those things i wrote down for granted, I am really thankful that God has blessed me with them. 


The next Thanksgiving, I was 16 years old, a junior at the public high school, and experiencing the realness of God in crazy new ways. It was at that time that my friends from youth group and I were visiting and helping at the homeless shelter in Omaha, Nebraska every Friday night that we could. God was showing up and moving in our hearts and I was thankful for the new life that I had found in Christ. Not that I hadn't believed in God before I saw God working in Omaha, but my heart and my life was far from where Christ wanted me to be, and so I had a homecoming that was like no other. My heart had finally returned to God and I was home. :)


*fast forward* 
October of my senior year in high school. I was 17 years old and my fragile world was about to fall off of a cliff. I would say that October 19th was when everything shattered. After having spent the night on the floor of a sparsely furnished apartment next to my bronchitis infected sister with not so much as even a blanket to keep us warm, I and my 5 younger siblings found ourselves thrown into the most chaotic situation of our lives. 
My younger siblings and I were given 15 minutes to pack clothes and school books to last us for an unknown amount of time. From there, we were divided into two separate vehicles and before we knew it, we were bound for a little dairy farm in South Dakota that we would call "home" for the next bunch of weeks. We had no communication with our friends, parents, or other siblings. As the oldest, I was told not to cry and not to let on to the youngest children that anything was wrong so as not to frighten them. I remember the first night on the floor of this small office that I was now to call my room, my 7 year old sister asleep next to me, feeling so cut off from everyone and so confused as to what had all the sudden happened. All I wanted was to go home. I wanted my bed back. I wanted my house back. I wanted my friends back . I wanted my parents back. I don't think I have ever experienced a greater pain nor have I wept more than the night that my world, as I knew it, was taken and turned completely up-side-down. As much as I wanted to be angry, I think I found myself more in a state of complete broken-ness. I had nothing. Not only that, to add to my misery, I had caught whatever sickness my sister had. 
I remember how hard it was to hold in all the tears that wanted to spill out of my eyes everyday. I remember how I didn't know what to say when one of the little boys asked "Fernie, where's mommy and daddy?" or "Fernie, how long are we going to be here?" 
I remember how sad I was that no one knew and that I could not tell them. 


I don't know if any of you have ever lost everything you had and were swept out the door, carried to another land, and told it was your home for an unknown period of time.. but let me tell you... it's really super awful. Words do not even describe how awful. I would not wish it on even my greatest enemy.  So, while I was trying to stay distracted in my new found home, I was reading in Psalms for my Bible study, and I happened to be studying Psalm 126.  The first verse " When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed." That was the first thing that stuck out to me. The Israelites and been taken captive by the Babylonians and they were far from their home and some of them lost family members and what not. So right from the get-go.. I identified with them. Going home was like a dream I had. It was all I wanted. But it was a dream in the distance and not very realistic, especially for the first few weeks of being there. 

So the chapter goes on to talk about how happy they were to be home. But then at the end it says:

Those who sow with tears
   will reap with songs of joy.
 Those who go out weeping,
   carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
   carrying sheaves with them.

That.. is a promise from God. Not a dream. Not a wish. A promise. And let me tell you.. I was sowing plenty of tears. And it was SO true. And, it's not like living in South Dakota was  miserable for the entire time we were there; We learned to enjoy it and think of it as an extremely long spontaneous vacation where we had to do school.
Anyways..  It was a week before Thanksgiving when my siblings and I were finally given the ok to come home. 

We drove into the glorious driveway close to 5 pm on a wednesday night. My parents greeted us at the door with open arms, there was fire in the wood stove, Mom's fresh soup on the stove and we were home for permanent! It was the most joyful homecoming I have ever experienced in my life :) PTL. 

That Thanksgiving was one of the best I've had. :) :) 

Then of course, last Thanksgiving was a different kind of home-coming.

College is kind of a strange concept. Moving away from home and only coming back for the holidays and all. Thanksgiving last year was special because it was my first time home since September 13th and I had missed my family a lot. 

So, after that little trip down Memory Lane, I am even more thankful for what I have and can look forward to this Thanksgiving with joy, knowing that God has done great things for me! 


Psalm 69:30
I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.