A sentence from a reading shimmered for me the other day, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
“… no pleasure is really complete without expressing gratitude, to God, for it” (italics mine).*
I want to take that to heart. The wonderful events in our lives are made so much more pleasurable if we give thanks for them. They are not “complete” if we don’t. I do want to nurture this discipline in my life.
*Jesus Always by Sarah Young
As we drove away from our son’s home in North Carolina, we headed north through rolling hills of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. It was scenic! And bright sunshine added a nice touch for a lovely drive.
In West Virginia, we pulled off the highway for a break and then it happened so fast…
We heard the crash…it sounded so close…
Then, instantly we felt the impact…the car behind us was pushed into our car by a third vehicle behind her.
We had stopped for a traffic back up. A red car was stopped behind us. A third car – a gold car – rammed into the red car which rammed into our car.
Thankfully, no one was hurt, including the little doggie in the middle, red car.
Thankfully, our car was drivable since it was the first day of our journey home to Minnesota. The middle, red car was able to drive away too. The third car had to be towed away. It looked totaled.
Thankfully, the damage to our car was minimal.
Thankfully, the police were quick, kind and efficient.
Thankfully, it was afternoon and we were soon going to stop driving for the day.
Thankfully, we have insurance.
We have a lot to be thankful for. It could have been much worse. A reminder, life can be changed in an instant.
A few days ago a storm passed through Southeastern Minnesota, near our town…or should I say through our town. There were straight-line winds that may have been a tornado, but not confirmed as of yet. There were other tornado touchdowns in towns near-by.
It wreaked havoc as though it was a tornado. Thankfully our house, and trees survived. We had a lot of debris in our yard, several branches from our neighbor’s trees, and two large branches from our own back yard that had to be sawed off.
When the winds came up that night I could tell it was different than any other storm I’ve experienced. We went to our lower level when the sirens went off.
In a very few minutes a lot of trees were uprooted, snapped in half and fallen over creating one big mess. Several farm buildings were either flattened or significantly damaged within one or two miles from our house. Thankfully no lives were lost.
During the next two days we cleaned up our yard and offered help to others who had severe damage to their properties.
Saturday evening we were tired but I decided I still wanted to go to the St. Olaf Orchestra Homecoming concert and I was glad I did. It was energizing.
Classes at St. Olaf started a couple weeks ago so that meant the students had only two weeks to prepare and practice for this concert. We all sat in awe after the conductor reminded us of that, because the pieces were difficult and the orchestra sounded really good.
Of course, the beloved conductor, who has been at St. Olaf for many years, has a lot to do with the success. He’s kind, fun, and animated. You can tell he’s enjoying his job very much and you know you’ll hear a good concert if he’s conducting.
When the concert was over I walked out into a clear, night sky with an almost full moon (9/25). What a striking and beautiful culmination to a tough couple of days in the after math of severe storms. I was blessed.