A Vision for Thanksgiving

always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah
~ Ephesians 5:20

It's Thanksgiving, and I'm sure you've got better things to do than hanging around reading a blog, so I'm going to make this as brief as possible. Weeks ago, I was listening to a pastor talk about heaven. He speculated that, if the saints who have gone before us can indeed know what is going on here on earth, that they know it in full, the end of the story even as we are in the midst of it. What came to mind were the words of Jesus recorded in John 11:4:

 This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Lazarus was dead when Jesus and His disciples got there --obviously dead, starting-to-stink dead. How could Jesus say Lazarus' illness would not result in death? Perhaps Jesus was giving His disciples an opportunity to see in full while they were here on terra firma. Can you see it? Perhaps He was assuring them that unemployment, illness, addiction, infertility, divorce, homelessness, sexual abuse --even physical death is an incomplete picture for those who are in Christ, for those who are called according to His purpose. 

We are saints who have not yet been called to heaven; we know only in part. But does that prevent us from asking God to train our eyes in preparation for that day? to renew our minds to know a bigger picture exists and train our eyes to begin to see it? Scripture assures us it is there, and because of who God is and the veracity of His Word, we can certainly trust that. I believe, it is in seeing the greater picture, in trusting it exists, that we can give thanks as we are meant to do. Always and in every thing.

Happy Thanksgiving!