All Things New: Thankful

Go to worship song as of late:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFeWN6QPuc

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Another Thanksgiving holiday has passed and we are quickly on the way to Christmas. I knew that the holidays were going to be emotional but I really could not fully prepare for the emotions that surfaced that day. I waited for the FaceTime call I would normally get form Gregory. I made my list of calls to the family and so badly wanted to call his phone. I just miss him. This is the new normal in our family. We have a void but God is still blessing us in endless ways. We had a lovely week of family, laughter, yummy food, lots of snow and more food. It was perfect. God provided, as He always does, in a BIG way. Ending the Thanksgiving day with our nightly routine and I just lost it. Tears. Tears. Tears. Mia was in the bath and just watching her mama cry. She knows when I am sad. She always says "I'm sad." and makes the saddest/ sweetest facial expression I have ever seen. She gets it. I really believe that. She shows such concern and compassion for me. I try to always let her know why I am sad, whatever the reason may be. The last year, it has mostly been "Mommy really misses her brother- Uncle Gregory. Uncle Gregory is in Heaven with Jesus" and she absorbs the information and moves on.

For months, I felt awful that she was seeing this emotion over and over and over again but that faded. I am proud that she is seeing so many real emotions every day. This little girl is growing up in a world where there are things that are "sad". There are things that aren't always making us "happy". I want her to know how to feel emotions. How to process them. How to come to God with ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that she feels. He is a God who cares- and I try and remind her of that daily.

Psalm 100 is frequently used often during the Thanksgiving season but this year it just hit in a different way. "Shout for Joy to the Lord, all the earth". I asked God, "How?". How do I shout for joy when I feel sad. When I feel that life is a little unfair this season. The answer was in the next two verses...

"Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture."

I just had to re-set, re-focus, and worship. I had to remember that He made me and I am His. He has not forgotten. He has not walked away. He is and always will be worthy. He is good and his love does endure forever.

It was a moment when I remembered that just a moment in his presence can heal any hurt we have.

This holiday season, whether it is a beautiful season, hard season, sad season, depressed season, fun season, etc- "worship the Lord with gladness! Come before him with joyful songs! Know that the Lord is God." He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is always making all things new.