Blog Archives
Thankful 30: Day 22–Jack
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 22
His friends called him Jack, and he died fifty years ago today.
I’m not referring to John F. Kennedy, but to C.S. Lewis.
Lewis taught English first at Magdalen College, then English literature at Cambridge. Although he published many scholarly essays, C.S. Lewis became well known for Christian apologetic works, such as Mere Christianity. Most know him as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and the creator of Aslan, the lion.
I encountered Lewis’ work in high school shortly after I became a Christian: Mere Christianity, God In the Dock, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, the fantasy fiction trilogy that began with Out of the Silent Planet. Lewis gave me the reasons to my “whys” about Christianity, reinforcing the intellectual soundness of my decision.
My copies are dog-eared, scribbled on, underlined, and high-lighted. Some are missing–I don’t remember who I gave them to. (“Here, you should read this!”)
So I’m remembering C.S. Lewis’ life and works today. I’m thankful for Lewis’ example as a Christian and for the impact his books had (and have) on my life and the lives of so many others.
Here’s to you, Jack.
‘I am [in your world].’ said Aslan. ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.’
C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
photos of boxed CD version of Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre “The Chronicles of Narnia”
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Thankful 30: Day 21–The Password is “Thank You!”
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 21
It’s a gray day, barely brighter at noon than it was at breakfast time. The wind drags a cold, damp blanket of clouds behind it, and by supper freezing rain coats the porch railing. Then sleet pellets the windows, until the final change to snow as the temperature drops. “Winter weather advisory” is the phrase the forecasters use today, but the words I need to fight the gloom are from the Bible, a “Thanksgiving Psalm.”
On your feet now—applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.Know this: GOD is God, and God, GOD.
He made us; we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.Psalm 100:1-5 The Message
On gray days I need the antidote of praise. I need to remind myself that God is good, that God is love, and that He is always faithful.
On gray days, I also need the antidote of color. Maybe you do, too, so here are reminders of warmer days.
I am thankful for flowers,
from tiny, wild violets to mammoth sunflowers,
from June’s sweet roses
to October’s chrysanthemums.
See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth, Psalm 46:8 The Message
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Sunflower photo by Barb Briggs
Thankful 30: Day 20–Oranges
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 20
I thank you, God, for oranges.
I’m thankful for their beautiful color, for the citrusy scent released when I remove the peel,
thankful for the sweet juice, and for the abundance of vitamin C.
Just as oranges nourish my body, God’s word is food for my soul.
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:10 NIV
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Thankful 30: Day 19–The Bridge
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 19, November 19
I am grateful that Jesus died on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins. He became the bridge between God and us.
That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God. I Peter 3:18 The Message
He [Christ] presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway.
We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Romans 5:6-8 The Message
They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls. I Peter 2:24-25 The Message
Have you walked across this bridge?
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
photos by Laura Crippin
Thankful 30: Day 18–Country Girl
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 18, November 18
I am thankful that I live in the country. I can look out my windows, take a walk in the yard, or drive down a gravel road and see Psalm 65 illustrated. Agriculture has certainly changed since King David’s time, but
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night will never cease. Genesis 8:22 NIV
Psalm 65:8 The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades,
you call forth songs of joy.
9 You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.
10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
11 You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing.
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Thankful 30: Day 17–Remember
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 17
The oak tree in my backyard has lost its leaves, shrugged them off like an old, worn-out coat,
but I remember the parade of changing color:
from green to yellow, from gold to bronze, and ending with brown.
In a few short weeks the apricot tree has turned pale yellow and orange, with a few leaves sporting red. I remember it.
I recall that this street has red maples arching overhead, so I make a point to drive this way in October.
I am thankful that the trees’ beautiful autumn colors are fixed in my mind, because I have seen up-close the way Alzheimer’s steals away memories. My father’s yesterdays fell away like the browned, oak leaves.
Even with a normally functioning memory, we tend to forget what God has done for us in the past.
Nehemiah talked to God about how his people in the past had
failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. Nehemiah 9:17 NIV
It’s so easy to mentally fold up the stories of miracles in our lives and put them away where we don’t think about them. God knows that we need help in the form of reminders.
After Joshua led Israel across the Jordan, God directed him to arrange twelve stones to help them recall what the Lord had done. The stones were to remind future Israelites about the miracle of the Jordan, which echoed the miracle at the Red Sea.
In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. Joshua 4:21-23 NIV
I remember the marvelous colors of the trees in fall, and they will be a reminder for me to think back on what God has done in my life.
Once again I’ll go over what God has done,
lay out on the table the ancient wonders;
I’ll ponder all the things you’ve accomplished,
and give a long, loving look at your acts. Psalm 77:11,12 The Message
I am thankful for the ability to remember. Even if my mind’s memory-leaves begin to loosen and flutter to the grass, I pray the river stone monuments and sturdy oak trunks of my past will jog the memory that God is good. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Thankful 30: Day 16–Sunset Rain
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 16, November 16
I am grateful that I live in the country, so that I can see a sky full of glory like this.
Late this afternoon the “scattered thundershowers” of the weather forecast coincided with the setting sun.
The dark clouds full of heavy, splashing drops scudded past our farm. I’m thankful I was home and was able to watch the cumulus bloom.
Praise the Lord.Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above. Psalm 148:1 NIV
Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies. Psalm 148:4
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars. Psalm 148:3 NIV
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Thankful 30: Day 15–Flowers With Perseverance
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 15, November 15
I am thankful for the last few flowers, struggling to bloom despite hard freezes, snow, and shrinking hours of sunlight.
They illustrate perseverance.
per·se·ver·ance
steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. —Dictionary.com
In spite of frosts that turned petals and buds to freeze-dried versions of their former blooming glories,
in spite of being the only flowers on an entire bush to have survived, they bloom. They persist. I could use a little more of that kind of tenacity.
Couldn’t you?
May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.
2 Thessalonians 3:5 NIV
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:4 NIV
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Thankful 30: Day 14–Guidance
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 14, November 14
I am grateful for God’s guidance.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Isaiah 30:21 NIV
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.Psalm 23:3
I am going out on Thy path. God be behind me, God be before, God be in my footsteps.
–Gaelic prayer
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Thankful 30: Day 13–Harvest Finale
I have joined Emily’s* 30 Day Challenge:
I’m challenging myself to post a picture every day during the month of November (30 Days To Be Thankful For) and to add a caption as to why I am thankful. — Emily
Day 13, November 13
I am thankful today that the harvest is done
–the final acres of corn were combined last night.
The corn yielded better than expected, considering how little rain we had in late summer.
For those unfamiliar with farming, here’s what happens on our farm during harvest:
The combine harvests six rows of corn at once and removes the kernels from the cob. When the hopper of the combine is full, the corn is augered into a “wagon” (the auger box) that a tractor hauls to the grain bins.
The rhythm of transfer was repeated–combine, auger box, bin; combine, auger box, bin–until
the last acre of corn was combined as the sun dropped low in the west, and the moon rose in the east.
Shadows stretched long across the hay ground
and across the buzz-cut fields where corn and soybeans had grown.
The darkening gravel road leads back to the bins, where the last auger boxful was emptied.
The land yields its harvest;
God, our God, blesses us.Psalm 67:6 NIV
See Thankful 30 page for every day’s entry.
* name changed
Constance Ann Morrison 