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This is the day we are thankful. All over our country we spend the day—even the whole weekend—thinking about the things for which we are thankful.

Sometimes we have cute ways of saying it. You know, like the annual “go around the table and say what you’re thankful for” exercise. Or maybe it’s a more tactile expression, written on paper or some other tangible medium.

Sometimes we are just quietly, introspectively thankful.

But on this day, we are Thankful.

And even though I have one of those brains that is always going, always thinking, always processing, always introspectively examining and pondering … and also despite the fact that I am wont to buck almost any tradition… I’m certainly not exempt from being in this frame of mind come late November.

In fact, there are quite a gamut of things I’ve dwelt on today, grateful that God has either been the Giver (James 1:17) or he has walked with me through it.

One of the first things I was grateful for today was a dinner that I got to prepare and share with some new friends one year ago this day. They were new friends to us, had known them only a few months. But they had already been so welcoming and loving toward our family that our kids readily adopted them as their third set of grandparents! I felt a kinship with Wayne, too, as he was a prolific writer (something I have aspired to be) and definitely marched to the beat of his own drum (something to which I also aspire).

The reason I am extra thankful for that one particular meal we shared together (besides the fact that I always love to make food for people, and visit with people) is that just two months later, Wayne would no longer be with us.

Ordinarily we would have been visiting with family that day. With Jen’s family, or perhaps my family … or both? In fact, that had been the plan: to join my parents who were with my sister and her family after the birth of their daughter. However, various circumstances kept that from happening … and when we found ourselves with an open Thanksgiving Day, we were delighted to find out that our new friends had found themselves in just that same spot!

Who could have known that there wouldn’t be very many more meals we’d all share together?

I think that’s a great reason for being thankful. I read a sign tonight, it was a picture of a sign actually. It said, “It’s not happy people who are thankful, it’s thankful people who are happy.” Indeed. Somehow it’s a truth that is at the core of our makeup. The “power of positive thinking” perhaps. Whatever it is that is behind it, there is a deep reality in the power of our perspective, our attitude.

I can go through my days worried about how I am going to pay our mortgage this month, or afford the repair work for our van (or really, the new van we need to be saving for!), or how I can better help equip my kids with the right tools they need for life, or even just spend my days being bogged down by the details of all the various projects I juggle for my work. Those things are indeed important, but perhaps not mine to struggle with.

When that is my focus, I might miss the chance to have an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner with someone whose presence I will not much longer share. I might miss an opportunity to see my wife’s beautiful heart in the way she expresses a thought she had or something Jesus is teaching her. I might miss (and sadly, have missed) the tender, loving heart of one of my sons or daughters so open and fully extended to their Dad (whom they often seem to view as so much more than I know that I am).

All because I was so focused on the things that seem to need attention—or change—rather than savoring the gifts that the Giver has already provided.

Like my beautiful, precious wife. Like our six amazing children. Like the family that God has surrounded us with: parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and even non-blood family.

And how about a roof over our heads? All the crazy freedoms and luxuries we have in this country? (Though, perhaps that is not really always—or ever?—something that we should be thankful for, at least, not in the way we usually think we should be.) How about the incredibly difficult year that 2011 has been for our household? More importantly, the fruit that we’ve seen Holy Spirit grow in and around us as a direct or indirect result of that?

There is an unending list of things we can be thankful for. In fact, it’s really more of a reality to live in (a paradigm, or perspective) rather than a list to check off.

Jen said it best today when she commented, “I’m really not any more thankful on this day than I am any other day. I’m not sure how to be!”

When you can breathe thankful, that is certainly the case. “Always be thankful.” Not just a command to “do it”… or else! But an invitation to the fullness of life that can be known when we shift our focus from our own efforts and abilities (or lack thereof) to gratitude for his provision, his caring… and his extraordinary capabilities. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

So as this Thankful day comes to its close, I am thankful. For the day spent with nearly all of our close family. For a belly full of delicious food. For a quiet house full of Sleepers, without whom my life, even I myself would not be the same. I’m thankful for my Father who loves me, and even likes me. 🙂 That he wants to be with me, and me to be with him, still amazes.

And I’m thankful for Wayne. Glad for the very short time God crossed our paths. Looking forward to the rest of the path crossings God has in mind for me during the time I have left, however much that may be.

We can’t know. We only know now. We have now.

And for that, I’m grateful.