Thanksgiving 2015

This Thanksgiving week has not turned out as planned. 

The plans were quite simple: take a week off work and spend the time in northern Virginia with our son, his wife and the grandchildren.

Instead, we are sitting in Phoenix.

I am recuperating from a medical intervention that the doctor tells me saved my life. Apparently some of my arteries were severely blocked and were about to shut down completely.

It has been observed by many saints that sometimes God puts in a place to get our attention. 

I am not sure all I am supposed to be learning in this spot beside the road. 

Here are a few gleanings to date:

Do not take life for granted. Each minute is a gift. Use it wisely.

Health is a measure not a static number or experience. Each of us has a measure of health; it is what we live with every day. While there might be some definition of optimum health in a medical text book; we all live within a measure of that optimum. It is okay to live within the measure we are given. I am grateful for the measure of health I have today.

Work will be there. This is difficult for a teutonic workaholic. When life's meaning is defined by productivity, it is a challenge to appreciate that the English poet, John Milton, who upon going blind wrote, "They also serve who only stand and wait." I confess I am still on page one of this lesson.

Relationships are all that matter. In the end it is who we love and who loves us that is the sum of life. I realized this during this past Sunday as our fellowship of Jesus’ followers gathered to celebrate new life in Christ as symbolized in baptism. What love flowed as we worshipped, participated in the rite of baptism and ate together. I am loved!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Ronald Friesen © 2015