My waking thought today was wondering if Lamentations three, verse twenty-two- ‘the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; great is your faithfulness.’ - contained the Hebrew word ‘hesed’. You might recognise it as that single word, trying to carry the mass of that full orbed concept of ‘covenant love’.
Anyway, it IS in there but today I want to look, briefly, on this Thanksgiving weekend, at the verses concluding thought- ‘great is your faithfulness.’. (I don’t know how many times I’ve sang that familiar refrain over the decades completely unaware of what I was saying. I don’t even want to think about how often I sang it in a very casual disregard or disbelief.)
Gods faithfulness to Himself, His word and ultimately unto us is indeed what holds us all together and in place. I’m far more thankful for His mercies and His continuation in my life through things seen, things unseen than I’ve ever before been. Through the people around me, what they bring into my life. Through the people around me, what they afford me to grow and gain in.
I’m humbled when I remember how much we all have to be thankful for in each other.
Let’s remember to practice a level of thanksgiving to God, even expressed to the people around us so profoundly, that in the years to come we look back remembering this as one of the most thankful times in our lives.
Even better, let the art and discipline of thankfulness become such a strength in your life that it elevates us as the body of Christ into new arenas of witness and testimony to the breaking world around us.