Thank you, and goodbye

Today's Thanksgiving. And on the heels of being thankful, comes waiting for Jesus. And waiting to say goodbye.

On this day, Ron & I are thankful for our home of over 25 years, our children and grandchildren, our dear friends, our church. On this day too, we are thankful for God's hand on our lives, as we anticipate our move to Florida where I begin a new call in January. The Lord has made straight the path for us, though it is with deep and mixed emotions that we tread upon it. On this Thanksgiving Day, we are not prepared quite yet to leave.

Yet, it is a blessing that this is all happening at this time of the year.

You see Advent is a time of preparation. That first Advent, people prepared for the birth of a child save us, and lead us. So as his disciples, we are always preparing for His coming to us, guiding, loving and caring for us, as he calls us to follow Him.

The gospels we shall read this month remind us that we do not always know the hour or the timing of God coming among us. Nor do we always know what He is preparing us for. With the coming of Christ in our lives, we live in a tension between certainty and expectation. Between status quo and radical change. Between going or staying. Between hello and goodbye. When we truly prepare for Jesus to come into our lives, and when we truly receive Him as Savior and Lord, our lives are not our own. And we are never the same again. For that, I am thankful on this day for I do not go alone.

A poem for you all from me:

Waiting with expectation for what I do not know

Except that it will not be without wonder

I step out on the path before me on a misty night

Following the sound I know well but cannot hear.

I am prepared because I am uncertain but not afraid

I see his wee footsteps in the mud

and feel him behind me and now

I hold the hand I cannot touch.

I am not prepared in my softer places to leave

As He was not but went all the same

Preparing the leave-taking just so in due time

Caressing the sadness with a purpose I cannot speak of.

Making straight the crooked path He leads me

Into wonder and joyful sadness to be

A little Christ who steps out on the path to life

Eternal and with the One I love but cannot hold

Until then.

Happy Thanksgiving as we wait for Jesus to come,

Pastor Lyn