This Thanksgiving, I am especially thanking God for family. This past year has been filled with transitions and changes, but the presence of family has been fixed and constant.
I am thankful for my wife, Candace. I am thankful that God gave her to me two and 1/2 years ago. She is my family, and doing life with her has continually made me happy. Having Candace as my family has made even the hard experiences of life become sweet memories, and I am thankful for her love and friendship this Thanksgiving.
I am thankful for my parents, and for my sister and brother-in-law. Though we don’t see them as often as we wish (its a 12 hour drive to Maryland from here), I am thankful for the closeness and affection we have that distance can’t extinguish. When we do see them, we laugh a lot and, for lack of a better phrase, “life is good.”
I am thankful for my “family-in-law”. It has been a tremendous blessing living in the same area as Candace’s parents and sister. I am thankful that they have embraced me as part of their family, and that being with them feels like being home. I’m thankful for the blessing of more brothers and sisters, and especially for the chance to be an uncle to my two nephews!
Finally, I am thankful for our Redeemer Church family. Not even a year ago, we were living in a different city and were members of another church. We had never felt closer to our friends in that church than when we moved, and were nervous about starting somewhere fresh. In God’s providence, we ended up moving multiple times through several churches before we landed at Redeemer Church. It has been a joy to form new friendships that are shaped by the word and worship of Jesus Christ, and to be a part of a family that is not only committed to the Gospel, but to each other. I’m thankful for that this Thanksgiving.
“So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the Gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).