Thankfuls, 2018

Thankfuls! It’s the fifth anniversary of the Thanksgiving Eve thankfuls post. In our household’s evening prayers, we each share those things for which we are thankful. Some nights it’s profound. Some nights it’s goofy. But it’s always good.

I don’t have any procrastinating to do this year because I’m not preaching at tomorrow morning’s Thanksgiving worship service. But I am looking forward to worship. Tonight, it’s time to relax. And for that I’m thankful. For a few other things, too:

• Anders, our Thanksgiving birthday boy
• Green bean casserole
• Salvy and Gordo, golden as always
• Three nights of Phish
• Our ever-rearrangeable basement
• Estes Park
• St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
• A bunch of people who wanted to study St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans with me
• Wool socks
• Marilynne Robinson and the good people of Gilead, Iowa
• Pension Pod Suchym Vrhcem, the best little hotel in the world
• The L
• Preaching, whether I’m speaking or listening
• The Atlantic Ocean
• Not jellyfish
• Pine Lake Camp, and the bond now shared between father and daughter
• Eowyn and Faramir
• Our friends in Martin, Slovakia
• Our children’s friends in Martin, Slovakia
• Soccer jerseys
• The prologue to John’s gospel
• The College of William & Mary. Has it been twenty years?
• The Grinch and his heart, three sizes bigger
• Thankfuls
• Torsten and his impeccable comic timing
• Community in Christ
• Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology
• Mannheim Steamroller (your disagreement is not valid)
• Naps
• Our FEAST groups from last year and this year
• Darth Vader’s redemption
• Taco Tuesday
• Colleagues, pastoral and otherwise
• Laughter
• The Grace organ, except when it’s being tuned
• Volunteers who coach youth sports teams
• Resurrection and the hope, promise, and life it brings
• Possum, Stash, Fluffhead, and Punch You In The Eye
• The rooftop bar at the Hotel President in Budapest
• FAITH5
• Greta, our eldest; our font of joy and kindness
• Lake Carlos
• Children who sleep
• The Royals. They can’t get worse. Right?
• Erika. Forever
• Jesus, who is grace all the way down