Today is Thanksgiving. For many, this is a big day where we’re surrounded by family from near and far, long tables filled to overflowing with food and the sounds of cheers and jeers wafting from the living room football game. Today is a big day.

For me, today is small, but oh, so significant. Over the years, I’ve watched the number of people gathered around Nana’s table grow fewer. This year, there will be three of us, and that’s a wonderful thing; three people spanning four generations. Today, I will witness a miracle: a great-grandson and his Nana cooking Thanksgiving dinner together in the kitchen I’ve known to be “home” for four decades. There simply are no words to convey how much that scene fills my heart. Today will, for the most part, be a quiet and simple day. Joseph Brackett may have experienced a similar day when he wrote “Simple Gifts”:

“‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down, where we ought to be,
An when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.”

Today is a day when the ways of the world, the hustle and bustle of our crazed culture will fall away in a tiny, little hamlet in upstate New York. In the joy and laughter of good company, we will share the blessings bestowed upon us, give thanks to the Giver and be refreshed in the simplicity of the gathering. Today, I give special thanks…

Lord, I thank You for families, all shapes and sizes. I lift each one up to you for peace and joy, reconciliation where needed and for Your knitting together of those hearts. Lord, I thank You for Your provision, great and small; for Your joy that lives inside us; for Your grace that makes each day new. Lord, I thank You that our destinies lie in Your capable hands.

Lord, I thank You for unanswered prayers, even though this small mind cannot comprehend Your plan. I thank You for when you say “no,” because I know that You work in all things together for the good of those who love You, and that you have a greater purpose than my eyes can see. I thank You for Your timing, even though I am often impatient, and I thank You for your patience with me.

Lord, I thank You for all my circumstances, because You are my great Shepherd who gave the ultimate gift of eternal life for me and for each and every person You have ever created. I thank you for the small gathering that will take place at Nana’s house this day, for Duncan’s passion for making a wonderful feast and his heart that freely gave two days of preparation; for the nearly 100 years of wisdom and joy Nana has brought to this world and to our family; for the laughter, the memories and the gift of miracles that happen each and every day – big and small, great and ordinary, simple and free. In all things, I give You thanks.