This quote by Sandra McCracken, a musician who loves the Lord, can be found on grassrootsmusic.com.

"On this American holiday of gratitude (2003), I'm thankful for all the things I wanted and never got. As it turns out, sometimes I have a small-minded understanding of my true need, and anyone else's for that matter. I tend to demonstrate blind judgment more often than blind trust. As much as I love to dream and scheme, I'm grateful for Providence and the lovely way she moves with reckless precision through all my wills and ways. I'm thankful for my crazy family and this unraveling. I'm thankful for all the things I can't afford. I'm thankful for the record deals I never signed. I'm thankful that I don't pen my own story. And that my needs are not hinged on my asking."

In reading this beautiful meditation, I had no option but to ponder and describe a small number of the wonders God has poured out to me.


I am thankful for a tremendous mercy that keeps me from what I deserve and a glorious grace the gives me everything I could never deserve.

-----I am thankful for parents that taught me from birth of this dearly loved mercy and even more dearly loved grace.----

I am thankful for brothers for whom I might demonstrate how to cherish what we are taught about the things of God.

----I am thankful for friends who spur me to love those things of God more deeply. ----

I am thankful that God made men and women different and that we are created to complement each other.

----I am thankful for cozy fires and for twinkle lights and faeries. ----

I am thankful for books and philosophies to stretch the boundaries of imagination until they just cannot be stretched any more; and that even then they continue to be stretched beyond imagination.

----I am thankful for my hair (as vain as that may be) and that I have not had any diseases that cause it to fall out. I am thankful for breath and that I have not had any diseases to steal it from me. I am thankful for my heart, that I have not had any failures to make it stop thudding.----

I am thankful for my heart and the way God has guarded and hidden it in His Almighty Hand.

----I am thankful for the beauty God works in the hearts of His children, that He is growing in me a beauty that will not fade as the years pass but rather will increase, so I need not be caught up in the lies of this world. And I am thankful for gentle reminders of where my focus should lie.----

I am thankful for His sovereignty which causes me to lean ever harder into His perfectly planned and perfectly accomplished will for my life and lives of all men.

----To whom do I give this outpouring of thanks?----

Not some mystical force of nature that works and moves and is completely unknown. Not some foreign stony-faced idol who demands sacrifices for its own survival. I owe these great thanks to a Tender Father, and Passionate Lover, and a Sovereign Spirit.

----And what shall be my response to the thankfulness spilling from my heart?----

Can it be anything but a spilling back to God of the gifts He has given? It is the very essence of tithing and generosity.

----I am thankful for His sovereignty which causes me to lean ever harder into His perfectly planned and perfectly accomplished will for my life and the lives of all men.----