Thankful Joy!

This week is Thanksgiving in Canada.  For us this usually means a long weekend full of family gatherings, fine foods and long walks under colourful canopies.

But not this year.

This year, a 2^nd wave of COVID-19 has swept over us.  We are under a tidal wave of record-breaking case counts, unnecessary death losses and sturdy warnings to stay safe at home.  Only those who are in our “bubble” can dine around our Thanksgiving table.

Thankfully, that hasn’t stopped God from blessing us with endless beauty that cleanses our souls and fills us with enough gratitude to last all year.

The autumn colours have arrived and it is as though a spell has been cast, leaving us in a state of awe. The mystical beauty of autumn is causing traffic jams as folks, drawn in, leave their cars behind and step into the scenery.  I saw a photo yesterday of the highway through Algonquin Park, there were so many countless cars pulled over it forced the closure of the park!  

Gladys Taber wrote of this luring of autumn in her book , Still Meadow Seasons, “I would be hard put to think of anything better on earth or in heaven than October…the world is lit with splendor, there are surely more colours than on any artist’s palette, and you can walk down the shining glory of the lanes breathing deep of an air that is cool wine to the lungs.” (153).

May you decide to have a joyful and thankful Thanksgiving despite the COVID-19 restrictions and may God’s shining glory fill your days with awe and wonderment.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Rev. Heather McCarrel 

The photo with this Blog was taken in Algonquin Park by Chelsea Lin, used with permission/Unsplash