A Heart of Gratitude

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I love Thanksgiving. I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I love the Pumpkin Pies. I love it all…from the cooling temperatures to the changing of the leaves, to the hustle and bustle of getting everything ready for that perfect dinner and yes…even the football games.


This year instead of thinking about all of those things I was thinking about each one of you. I’m sure many of you have read the illustration of The Tapestry. A tapestry is so beautiful and full of color on one side but if you turn it over the threads are a mess...they are interwoven with one another, over and under one another...just a real mess. Well, as I was thinking about you I realized that each one of you is one of those threads in my life. At some point in time God has woven you into my life, into my tapestry to make me what He wants me to be. Some of you have been in my life for only a short time perhaps way too short. Some have left this world but not before adding their touch to my tapestry.  God has used you and them by weaving you into just the right spot of my tapestry bringing a beauty to it that never would have been had it not been for you. Others have been in my life for a very long time and God is still using you to add more color and beauty to my tapestry. As I look at and reflect on the weaving and coloring of God's handiwork, I see that my tapestry is full of colorful threads bright and beautiful, soft and subtle, criss crossing each other, threads going in all different directions.  At times this tapestry looks like a mess and I think "Oh Lord, my life is just like this mess of threads... A REAL MESS!!! Will I ever be what you truly want me to be?"  Then God nudges me to look at the other side and when I do I see the beauty of it and how all things really do work together for good...my good.  And I think,"God you truly are the Master Tapestry Maker."


I love the Ephesians 2:10. It says – “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Did you see that word “workmanship?” We are His workmanship. We are God’s Masterpiece. How can I call us a Masterpiece? Because God only makes the best…and He always makes something beautiful. Don’t you agree?


I want to take this time to tell you how much I appreciate you my own personal thread and for the work God has done through you to make me something beautiful.  It is a  beauty that only comes by His working and weaving in my life. It's not a work that is done quickly but a work that is done slowly and deliberately over time.   It's not a beauty that is a physical beauty but a beauty that goes deep into my being and one that is being transformed daily to the image of Christ.  A beauty that will shine His light in a dark world.  A beauty that has been given for the dirt and ashes of my past.  His work isn’t finished in me yet but someday I will be a completed tapestry that will display the glorious colors of all my personal threads – YOU! THANK YOU for allowing God to weave you into my life and taking a part in His handiwork. I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for you, my own personal thread.


It is with "A Heart of Gratitude" that I thank  God for each you a thread of my tapestry.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.


Abundant blessings,

Janice