Thankful...

Our friends in D. R. Congo who named their baby after me sent a photo recently. I'm thankful for her safe delivery.

Today I'm also thanking God for God. Where would I be without the Eternal Presence walking with me through the ups and down? How can an infinitely holy God deal justly with sin while also showing infinite love? I'm grateful that an infinitely creative God made a way...

I'm thankful for my marriage and our girl. For my family of origin and so many I love who have known and loved me for decade upon decade.

I'm thankful for my friends who have loved us through thicks and thins, made us laugh, cried with us when it hurt.

I'm thankful for a shoulder that works great, a hip that works fine, and the ability to walk and swim, to see, to hear, to smell, to feel, to taste.

I'm thankful for meaningful work and great administrators, colleagues, and students who make it a joy to do my job. I'm grateful for employee benefits!

I'm thankful for the faith of my sister and her kids in the midst of the trauma they are experiencing.

I'm thankful for my church--a supportive community.

I'm thankful for my city, my county, my country and those who work to make it a safer, more just place.

I'm thankful for a full pantry, for the bounty of a full refrigerator, for the fact that we have so much abundance that the word " leftovers" is commonly used in our language.

I'm thankful for the beauty I have seen this year from The Tetons to Istanbul to the Aegean to the Dead Sea.

There's so much more I could say! And I know you're thankful, too, aren't you? We are so rich!