Third and Fourth Thankful Days!

So I missed posting yesterday but the reason is one of the things I'm thankful for! I got to spend most of the afternoon and evening with my family, planning for Thanksgiving dinner, working on my secret project for Paul, eating good food (we brought Paul along for that part :) ), listening to my brother and sister make good music, playing piano myself, and just overall having a great time. I really am thankful that God placed me into such a wonderful family, and that I've been able to have really close friendships with my brother and sister, and that I was able to have a special and unexpected day with them yesterday. There's something about being human that gives one a sort of longing for a community and a home, I think - we were designed to give and receive love in relationship, like God does in Himself and with His creation, and it is not good for us to be alone.

Today, I am thankful for a church that preaches the gospel, and that refuses to let a week go by without reminding me to fix my eyes upon Christ and walk in faith by grace. It can be easy to drift through life trying to be a good and decent person, forgetting the incredible grace of God that both raises us from the depths of our sin and calls us to a life of obedience. We do good and expect to be rewarded by God, or stumble and fear punishment from God, forgetting that Jesus has already borne the punishment and promises us an eternal reward based on His righteousness rather than our own. Like our pastor said this morning, God isn't Santa Claus! He doesn't keep a list of which of His children are naughty and which are nice, and dole out blessings and hardships accordingly. He gives us blessings abundantly beyond what we deserve or could ever have earned, and at the same time He promises that we will experience suffering. The key to understanding is to remember that the reason behind both the good things and the bad lies within God Himself. Reality is not centered around you or me, but around God, and so sometimes things happen that wouldn't make sense to take place in a man-centered world. Anyway, I will stop here before I go too far tangentially down the random courses of my thoughts, and simply say that I am so very thankful for a God that interacts with me on the basis of His love and grace rather than on the basis of my righteousness and merit!