Today's Daily Lesson comes from Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 17 and 18:
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
And Psalm 100 verses 1 through 4:
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
Last year, on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, I had the privilege of worshiping with colleagues at Broadway Baptist Church in Ft. Worth. Among these colleagues was my friend Fran, who was leading worship that morning and offered the pastoral prayer during our worship. I do not remember Fran's specific words that morning. I know they were resonant and well crafted. But it was not near so much the beauty of Fran's words that moved me so much that morning. It was her presence in the pulpit. It was the fact of her speaking. It was act of her praying a Prayer of Thanksgiving and calling us to pray with her.
And what about this act of prayer that moved me so deeply?
Fran had just in the past months prior lost her husband. She, a recent widow still struggling in her own grief and worried for the grief of the rest of the family, was still nonetheless praying the Prayer of Thanksgiving and summoning us to pray with her.
We enter now the Season of Thanksgiving. No doubt, many come to this time this year in our own grief and apprehension. Yet, we come to give our thanks nonetheless. We come to rejoice in the LORD. We come into His presence with singing.
And so as the old Hymn of Harvest says, I echo my friend and pastor Fran in saying also:
"Come ye thankful people come."
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