Plates filled with good food and plenty of choices for fun things to do with your family is the reason for this season. Whatever you do, make the time you spend with loved ones… lovely. Pray for those who will be lonely. Many times, we become obsessed with having everything just right, only to spoil the big day with stress and seeking ways to please everyone. Make this year a time to make new traditions that give more family fun and less frustration. We can preserve the holiness and happiness of the season without worrying over the small stuff. Enjoy your bountiful harvest, giving thanks and first fruits to God…for He giveth and can taketh away. Share the good news of knowing Him personally and let his love, from within, warm your homes every season. His light will shine for all to see your thankful hearts. The bountiful harvest will be with us throughout the year, when we live our lives in Christian cheer … connected to the Vine.
Being connected to family and friends is one of our greatest blessings. Recently, I visited my friend’s mother at Sampson Regional Medical Center. Walking through the lobby, I was lost in the splendor of the season. Fabulous fall creations lured me inside the newly renovated gift shop where a triple treat was waiting … my candle warmer, a dragonfly, meeting an old friend who would share a personal story of our bountiful harvest and find a treasure I had lost in the spring season.
Judy and Brenda were working to finish flower arrangements, when I burst into their work room excited to see them and the new shop filled with treasures of all kinds. Judy and I hugged, with my pocketbook becoming the center of attention. She told Brenda how my cool bag changed with covers of all kinds. Judy actually pulled the cover off my pocketbook to show how it worked. That’s when God showed if we really wait on Him and be of good courage, He will answer our prayers Judy held her hand to catch what fell when the cover came off. I squealed with delight to see my sailboat necklace that had been lost for months. I told them I bought this gold necklace to remind me of times Tim and I shared sailing. When I realized it was gone, I looked high and low, cried, prayed, and kept believing I’d find it one day. I held it close to my heart and thanked God for answering prayers. I was reminded how good things come to those who wait, have faith … and believe.
Judy and I talked as she prepared my candle warmer and totaled my bill. She shared how she decorated the table of their church with a fall display for a family funeral. The splendor of God’s glory reminded her of the bounty of the harvest. We celebrated the beauty of knowing our Lord while sharing His bounty of blessings together right there in the gift shop. I left with a bag full of treats, a renewed friendship, my treasured sailboat necklace safely tucked inside my purse, and a prayer of thanksgiving in my heart.
Writing this adventure in my journal that night, I was in awe of the verse for the day. It seemed appropriate for this season when we gladly give thanks for all things big and small, even finding what we thought was lost. Our greatest prayers should be for all people who are lost. We must keep praying and believing that they will find the greatest treasure of all time…a personal relationship with our Lord.
Writing about this blessed adventure that night in my journal, I was in awe of the verse for the day. It seemed to have been written just for me. But my friends, it is for all of us. He loves all His children and longs to hear our prayers of thanksgiving in all seasons.
“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
Let us give thanks and enjoy the bounty of harvest as we gather together and ask the Lord's blessings every day. Amen.
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