Thanksgiving is coming. Thanksgiving time can be incredible! You see family. You hang out with friends. You get relax and eat great food until you're queazy. Watch some football or parades. Go shopping with a bunch of angry people who refuse to go shopping until that notoriously dark Friday.
Yet for all the same reasons it can be the most troubling time. A few years back I experienced my worst Thanksgiving. I had to work a half-day on Wednesday and a full-day on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It was cold. I was alone in my entire apartment complex. I had nothing to do. I was away from my family. And to make it more sad I had borrowed my cousins violin and so I played it outside, alone, in the cold, in the dark whaling the safest sounding notes I could figure out. It was pathetic! I started, as is normal in these situations, to feel sorry for myself. But I really was just sad I was in the state I as.
IT is times like these (and maybe the same for you coming up) that such a reminder of WHO we are and to WHOM we belong is a necessary and 'okay, I can keep going on and make it through' thing. The Apostle Paul in his book to the Colossians writes, 'You have died, your life is hidden with Christ in God.' (3.3) If you are a follower of Jesus you know that you do not deserve any kind thing from God--if you are not a follower of Jesus I hope you soon realize this. And therefore the words 'Your life is hidden with Christ in God' are amazing! You are seen by God the Father as Jesus is seen by God the Father. When God sees you he sees that you forgave your enemies, you persevered through temptation, you loved others, you felt compassion for the weak and helpless, you healed others. You are God's child just like Jesus. This is a ridiculous good deal that no Black Friday offer will come close to. AND IT IS FREE!!
Paul also remarks that 'You have died.' You're dead! You, the way you use to believe, the things you use the think could get you all you wanted, the law you lived by gonzo! You're a Christ follower now and you are hidden in Christ! The Gospel reminds us that we are Children of God, not merely acquaintances, not simply simply friends, not even just relatives, but God's children. And he is a good, the best, the supreme Father to us.
So go eat your turkey or ham and pies. Go and remember that the toughest difficulties you go through, no matter how hard you fall and how many times you sin in the worst kind of way, if you entrust yourself to Jesus you will never cease to be his brother and the Father's child whom he loves infinitely.
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