I just received in my email the grace of Ann Voskamps "When Thanksgiving is Hard" blog post. Please visit her blog at aholyexperience.com and read for yourself this blog that so blessed me.
Today, my tinkertoy plans for a lovely Thanksgiving were squashed by the news of my daughter's man having to go to work...taking the car so that neither could she come. I was already refusing to admit sadness; resolutely turning my mind from Thanksgivings Past. Times of sadness and confusion. Times of institutionalization. Times of being alone. Times of despair.
And my resolution went to hell along with our plans.
I'd begun a short story. A story that carries all the warmth and joy that my Thanksgiving longs for and contrasts it to Thanksgivings of cold desolation. The story of my life. Except. Oh yeah. Well my life has been lacking some of the warmth and joy. I try not to be bitter. I try not to be jealous of my friend Kate who creates a holiday whereever she goes. Who has family and a wood burning stove.
Why is life so hard? So disappointing?
Why do we set ourselves up for tears with expectations?
Expectation comes hand in glove with disappointment.
You know what?
In Heaven. In the New Jerusalem,we will celebrate Thanksgiving and there will be no one left alone, no one not included. We will be one huge celebrating welcome homing family. And the same God we will celebrate then is the same God we have now who wipes away our tears and promises better things to come.
God is good.
He is good now in our moments of lonely disappointment....and he will be good in the times of joy and celebration in our future.
He is good in the bad.
He is good in the ugly.
He is good because he is God.
And that never changes with our failed plans.
It doesn't change in our moments of pain.
It doesn't change in the loss. In the times when the earth swallows those we love.
He is good and He is God.
And someday he will explain this to us. Why this death was a necessary prelude to our real life.
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