Stain Glass Lens of the 21st Century

Tag: Thanksgiving

  • Grateful Reverence

    Grateful Reverence

    Photo by Pexabay/Pexels

    I was run over by the Holy Spirit this past week, it was a most disturbing experience!  One minute I was going about my business and the next I was left a speechless mess fully aware of God’s amazing presence.

    It happened while out walking my dog, Abigail, one warm afternoon early in October.  I looked up to the Canadian Geese who were practicing their V formation overhead when it happened, a humility so overwhelming I felt light headed with awe.

    I will never be able to fully understand or articulate the grandeur of God in that moment. As I looked around God’s glory shone through the salmon noisily splashing up steam.   To think God created something as remarkable as a salmon whose instincts know to return home every autumn to propagate the next generation or butterflies who began life as caterpillars are now winged beauties prepared to fly south.  This same God put into the hearts of birds to gather on hydro wires so together they may migrate and also instilled within the Canadian Geese to fly in perfect formation.  And then, one final touch God decided to have all the bushes and trees burst into celebratory colour!  

    If all of this wasn’t enough, God also created me, and you, so we can witness this beauty; an audience to God’s amazing creative genius.  The profound awareness of God’s closeness stunned me into a deep humility and gratitude that could only be expressed through reverence; a reverence for something much bigger, wiser and deeper than I could ever perceive.

    As John Milton, English Poet, wrote, “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

    May your Thanksgiving be so full of gratitude that it results in a deep reverence that tunes you into God’s closeness.

    Happy Thanksgiving,

    Rev. Heather McCarrel

  • A Kernel of Gratitude  

    A Kernel of Gratitude  

    Photo by Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash

    Every year at Thanksgiving, whether there are only two around the table or twenty-two, each plate has 3 small kernels of un-popped colourful dried corn placed upon it. Before the meal is served we each take our place around the table and together share three things we are thankful for in the past year.  Then we place the kernels in a glass bowl which is placed in the middle of the table.  It is a thing of beauty to see the many different coloured kernels knowing each represents gratitude. 

    Tevye the Dairyman in the play Fiddler On the Roof sings a ‘tongue–in-cheek’ song about the importance of traditions and he concludes that without traditions life would be as shaky as a “fiddler on the roof.”  I tend to agree with Tevye; traditions help to steady us in an otherwise unstable world.

    It is important to me that my children witness traditions that tether them to faithful living and teach them to find hope in a difficult world.  By demonstrating gratitude we are living what the Apostle Paul teaches, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (Thessalonians 5:16-18)

    This year, as my family gathers for Thanksgiving we do so with three less family members; it has been a difficult year.  And yet, we will keep the Thanksgiving tradition of ‘Counting the Kernels of Gratitude’ because each small kernel reminds us of God’s presence, providence and promises.  As Henri Nouwen writes, “Gratitude goes beyond the ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift.”

    May everyone take time this Thanksgiving to pause and count enough blessings until you too are confident that life is pure gift!

    Blessings,

    Rev. Heather McCarrel