Thanksgiving – Reminders from Scripture

Thanksgiving – Reminders from Scripture

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. My brothers and I and our families are taking time to express the things for which we are grateful to God. We are motivated to do this by the sounds of these verses of scripture.

Oh give thank to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples. -Psalms 105:1

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. -Psalms 100:4

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. -Philippians 4:6

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; to declare Thy loving-kindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by night... For Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad by what Thou hast done, I will sing for joy at the work of Thy hands. How great are Thy works, O Lord! -Psalm 92:1, 4-5

Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father... -Ephesians 5:19-20

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from the pit; Who crowns you with loving-kindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. -Psalm 103:1-5

Comfort Food

The thatch has disappeared from the top of my head and now the shakes are disappearing from the top of my roof. As I write this, my house roof is being reshingled. Now that’s a set back. I will drop a chunk of change. How am I supposed to respond to that? But wait. This week, I did something I have never done before. I tried out for a TV commercial. My daughter in law Gina does this regularly and this week she told us that her agent was asking for an entire family to audition. This commercial would be for a product to minimize Alzheimer symptoms. Take One. As they videod us in the studio, my son Jeff and Gina and grandson played pretend soccer and wrestled playfully as Christine and I looked on with obvious delight. Take Two. Gina walked with me at an imaginary beach and I was asked to feign the effects of the neurological disease. Another take projected my condition six months after starting this medication and my mind is back in charge. Christine then followed this up with her own version of a stricken senior. If I or we get the part it means a few thousand dollars. And already my head is full of big ideas of how it can be spent. I am singing the Beatles song, ‘Act Naturally.’

They're gonna put me in the movies
They're gonna make a big star out of me
We'll make a film about a man that's sad and lonely
And all i gotta do is act naturally

But what if I don’t get that part? Will I be crushed? How will I handle that? We all respond to changes, pressures, setbacks, reversals, conflicts and adversity differently. Some never stop complaining, singing the blues, finding faults with whatever. Some see the bright side. Some lose their appetites and others go on a feeding frenzy. Some simply find comfort in eating certain food items. Call it comfort food. Could be pizza, or pop corn, or blizzards, or Kraft dinner. What do you like to eat when you are feeling low? Is there a particular food that picks you up or calms your spirit, or is enough of a diversion that it feels like comfort? It might be chicken soup, or spicy pasta, or hot porridge, or homemade apple pie with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Psalm 25 is comfort food for the soul. It's an alphabet soup for the soul. The reason I call the psalm an alphabet for trouble is because David has written an acrostic poem with each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s called an alphabetic acrostic. There are seven such psalms (25, 34, 37,111,112,119, and 145). We can’t see this in our English translations of course but knowing this gives me a valid reason for calling this my alphabet soup.

Addendum: I didn't get the commercial. They called my wife back. She is obviously a more convincing person with blank moments. Clearly I am jesting about the gravity of this let down. But we have them - true heartaches and comfort food truly helps.

"To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;... guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior,and my hope is in you all day long. May integrity and uprightness protect me,because my hope is in you." Psalm 25:1,5,21

Alphabet Soup for the Soul

We all respond to setbacks, reversals, conflicts and adversity differently. Some of us may lose our appetites and others may go on a feeding frenzy. Still others of us may find comfort in eating certain food items. Call it comfort food. It could be pepperoni pizza, or double butter pop corn, or a Dairy Queen pecan cluster blizzard, or maybe Kraft dinner. What do you like to eat when you are feeling low? Is there a particular food that picks you up or calms your spirit, or is enough of a diversion that it feels like comfort? It might be chicken soup, or spicy pasta, or hot porridge, or homemade apple pie with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream. Psalm 25 is comfort food for the soul. It's an alphabet soup for the soul. The reason I call the psalm an alphabet for trouble is because David wrote in Hebrew and while we cannot see the evidence in our English translations, he began each of these twenty-two verses with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the psalm David calls on God and speak our his concerns and recites God's character virtues and values and gains assurance that God will look after his needs. He receives comfort.

Recipe for Summer alphabet soup Serves 4

4 plum tomatoes
4 ears fresh corn, husked
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 clove garlic, peeled
8 cups water
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into
1/4-inch pieces
1 cup alphabet pasta or other small pasta such as flakes, orzo, or baby shells

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. After removing tomato cores drop tomatoes into boiling water, & remove in 15 seconds transferring them to a colander. Rinse with cold water.
2. When the tomatoes are cool, peel away tomato skins. Halve the tomatoes & then snip into coarse chunks; set aside.
3. Cut all corn kernels from ears of corn. Save the corn cobs.
4. In a soup pot, heat the oil and when it is hot, add the onion, carrots, salt, and pepper. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring often, or until the vegetables soften.
5. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring for 3 minutes more.
6. Pour in the 8 cups of water and add the corn cobs. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the soup for 15 minutes. Use tongs to remove the cobs from the soup.
7. Add the corn kernels, green beans, zucchini, and alphabets. Return the soup to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the alphabets and vegetables are tender. Add more water during cooking if the mixture seems too thick.
8. Taste the soup for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if you like.

GPS Application

“Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.” Psalm 25:8-10