Five Things I'm Thankful For

I figured one of my first forays back into the discipline of blogging would be to participate in this meme that has been making the rounds regarding the Five Things I'm Thankful For. So, here we go:

1. I'm thankful for all of the people I have gotten to meet because I know and follow Jesus Christ. The words of Jesus have come true for me: Mark 10:29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 

Mark 10:30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 

Mark 10:31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

I know some truly remarkable people who love the Lord Jesus and who serve Him in a beautiful diversity of ways. 

2. I'm thankful for the fact that God never leaves me nor forsakes me. Never. No matter what I've done, no matter how much a muck of things I think I've made, God is still there, loving me, correcting me. 

3. I'm thankful for the discipline of God (see Hebrews 12). Yes, it is definitely sometimes very painful and difficult, but it is the path of transformation and sanctification and, most of all, it is my deepest assurance that I am God's beloved child. Which leads me to...

4. I'm thankful for adoption. I am adopted child and I have been so deeply blessed by all that entails. I am grateful to my parents who adopted me, and to my birth mother (who I've met), because it takes a woman making an excruciating decision and a family willing to expand their circle of love to include a child not biologically their own to make an adoption possible. I can't  help but think during this Christmastime of Joseph, our main character for the 23rd of December 2007, and how adoption played out in the story of our Lord Jesus. Joseph essentially adopted Jesus, who was not his flesh and blood. Without that adoption, Jesus would not have been encompassed in the same way in the lineage of the House of David. It is mind-blogging to think that the Messiahship of Jesus, his being the Son of David, was dependent on Joseph's decision to accept the mess he thought he saw in his and Mary's circumstances as coming from God. Joseph's adoption of Jesus allows for and prefigures our adoption as sons and daughters by God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son by means of the Holy Spirit. 

5. I'm thankful for my family. I have a great wife, who loves me despite myself and, trust me, that is saying something! I have three kids (Daughter, 6 1/2, Son 23 months, and Daughter 3 1/2 months) that are truly my arrows in my quiver. I remember when I realized that my oldest daughter was the first flesh and blood relative I had ever known.  Every day they renew and sustain me, even when they challenge me. It seems like every day they do or say something that makes me laugh, and often makes me think. How often my kids cause me to understand the words of Scripture that talk about God ordaining praise from the lips of infants and toddlers, God hiding things from the wise and revealing them to children, and accepting the Kingdom of God like a child. I am blessed to have a great Mom and to have had a great Father (I miss you, Dad). They gave and give me only the best. I have only one grandma still living, but she is more of a saint of God then she will ever admit to being. I owe her more than I could ever repay. I have a great sister and brother-in-law and nephew (and a new niece on the way). Aunts and uncles and cousins and now in-laws and biological family. All have left their vital mark on my life, and I am profoundly grateful.