Yesterday in an egg search, little Sara and I found a cache of beautiful eggs in the chicken pen—
amazingly, right in the drop shelf from the nesting box, where they should be but usually aren’t. We
gathered eight beautiful little eggs and left two to convince the young hens that was a good place to
leave their offerings.
“Hallelujah!” I rejoiced.
“HALLELUJAH!” little Sara bellowed with enthusiasm. I wondered if the neighbors could hear and what
they thought if so.
Not just Thanksgiving, but Thanks-LIVING, our pastor shared recently in one of those messages that
sticks with you. I have previously pondered the value of choosing to focus on blessings rather than
frustrations. I had not, however, traced the connection between NOT living with thanks and praise and
venturing into darkness. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave
thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts, “ Paul wrote
(Romans 1:21 ESV.) Later in the chapter, he goes on to mention a lot of the activities that darkness leads
to, unfortunately a pretty fair assessment of our world today.
Wow. All the more incentive to rejoice, even when it’s hard. Cold is not a favorite of mine. Especially
damp cold like this week with our sudden drop into the 20’s contrasting with the 70’s we had been
enjoying. Frost on the windows, frozen water buckets. Shivering in the sharp breeze whooshing past the
milking stand, forming a wind tunnel where I sit ....
Instead, may I revel in the warm creamy fresh milk in my mug of hot chocolate this morning. The half-
grown chicks coming running for their feed. The horses nickering for grain as they munch hay. The kitten
purring, the children laughing.