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Thanksgiving at the TrollsAhhhh… the Holidays!  I sit this week with a thousand lists running through my head:  the work that I am behind on because of sick days the last two weeks, a few writing assignments that need some space, a talk that I will be giving in a couple of weeks, the groceries, the pies, the kids off school and now-what-do-I-do-with-them.

 

But underneath the clutter of the to-do’s lies that usually dormant dragon that raises it’s head every holiday season.  The dragon of loss.

 

There is nothing like the Holidays to make you aware of all that you have lost.  I have a few estranged relationships that I mourn every year.  And I have a friend experiencing that loss for the first time.  There are others still who mourn the loss of their sons and daughters who gave their lives in service to our country, or whose children were taken from them through accidents or predators.  Quite possibly there are those who mourn this Holiday season and don’t know why; the thousands of children, orphaned and alone.

 

Loss – the most tragic of emotions that we, as humans, wrestle with to bring some sense of understanding.  But there is none on this side of Heaven.

 

I wonder, did Jesus ever mourn his loss?  This holy season we see Jesus as the precious babe entering our world in the lowliest of habitats.  How old was he when he realized all that he left behind in the throne room with his father?  Did his birthday become a time when the dragon of loss awakened and tormented him?

 

I think he won those battles:

 

Hebrews 12:2

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

And he won because of Hope!  He chose to change his perspective.  He did not look at what he didn’t have but what was still coming his way; the restoration of every lost relationship!

 

I wonder too, if that was a choice the pilgrims had to make.  What we celebrate at Thanksgiving is a change in perspective.  In gratefulness they celebrated a bountiful harvest and a shared success with the Native Americans of their time even in the shadow of unbelievable loss.  There was great sacrifice in their gratefulness.

 

Truly Thanksgiving is about choosing our perspective, of being humble enough to admit that we don’t understand or agree with our losses but we choose to see what we do have. We choose to celebrate life all around us and choose to believe that through Christ, every lost relationship is able to be redeemed.

 

This Thanksgiving may your losses co-mingle with the blood of Christ and his redemption and restore to you Hope and Joy! Press into him and bring your sacrifice of Praise, it will usher in His presence.  Wield your shield of faith and sword of the Spirit well, it can slay your dragon.

 

Psalm 100: 4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

© Meakins Speak, LLC 2011

 

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