My # 1 Thanksgiving Blessing: God’s Love, Shown in Jesus

Psalm 107:1

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 3:18-19

May [you] have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

1 John 4:7-12

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Florist’s Daisy (a species Mums) | Sugar Land, TX | October 2022

The Top Five things for which I am thankful fall into five broad categories. In reverse order of their importance they are…

# 5: Things I can taste, smell, touch, see, and hear.
# 4: Freedoms and blessings we enjoy in these United States of America
# 3: Family of believers – brothers and sisters in Christ
# 2: Family, wife, children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews
# 1: The goodness, love, and grace of God shown in Jesus Christ.

Today’s thanksgiving blessing: The goodness, love, and grace of God shown in Jesus Christ.

Steadfast. Unwavering. Unconditional. Glorious. Good, so very good. Love is all these things. We see it so perfectly in Jesus.

We too quickly use the word love. “I love pecan pie. I love chocolate.” But that is not love in the truest sense. For in both those cases the love we speak of consumes and devours its object. The pizza and chocolate are eaten. They are no more.

God does not consume nor devour us. He loves us. He showed that by sending Jesus to be our salvation. Such a gift that was! It is the opposite of consuming. It is sacrificial giving. And it never wavers. It is steadfast. For this I am thankful. Deeply and profoundly thankful.

Today we’ll begin decorating our home for Christmas. I’ll bring down trees and lights from the attic. I’ll string some up in the front yard. “JOY” will be on our front yard, large and red. That JOY is there because God sent his Son to be our Savior. In fact, it’s one of the first Bible verses I learned, “God loved us and sent his Son.”

That’s what I come back to. It moves me to love God and neighbor. It is also that which most of all I wish to share with you, Dear Reader. And so I do:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

– 2 Corinthians 13:13