So much to be thankful for...

A slower week. Which is fine by me. Amy’s brother brought his family up for the weekend so he could do some deer hunting. After getting Amy loaded up for the Abingdon Farmers Market Saturday morning, the rest of my Saturday was spent coaching some youth wrestlers in a tournament in Bristol. 

Ms. Desiree came on Monday and stayed with us through Thanksgiving. As always, she jumped in and helped with anything and everything. From entertaining the kids, to collecting eggs, to filling coolers, to preparing Thanksgiving sides. She got here on Monday in time to help block the road  and round up about 50 head of cattle into the barn to be sorted for Tuesday’s road trip to the processor. Then she rode along on Amy’s delivery Monday afternoon to Chilhowie and Abingdon.

With me on the road Tuesday, Amy handled the farm chores along with teaching the kids and making broth. She also finished teaching a MailChimp course through Barn2Door to help other farmers with their local farm produce sales. 

Playing catchup on Wednesday. Of course never actually catching up. On Thursday, after a couple hours of taking care of the bare minimum around the farm, it was a lazy day of well spent time with friends and family. With much to be thankful for. 

Instead of listening to audiobooks on the road while taking cows to the processor like I usually do, I mostly rode in silence, thinking about all I have to be thankful for. So much that I take for granted. It’s easy to compare ourselves to others and wonder why we don’t have things that other people have. Most of my life I’ve been wondering the opposite. Why am I so blessed? Why do I have so much that other’s don’t have? Especially when compared to the vast majority of folks throughout human history that didn’t have electricity, clean hot running water, a freezer full of food, access to modern medicine, and so on. 

Pondering two questions as I drove: Am I truly thankful for all that I have? And would I still be thankful without those things? The later being a tougher question to answer. What am I most thankful for? And would I still be thankful without it?

I am thankful for my health, but one day my physical health will fail me. There’s nothing in the world I am more thankful for than my family, friends, and neighbors. But the reality is, one day I will lose them. Or they will lose me. Death will indeed separate us from those we love. 

I think a lot about Job, who was blessed with seven sons, three daughters, thousands sheep and camels, and hundreds of oxen and donkeys. I don’t know why he was blessed with so much to begin with, but I imagine he was thankful for all that he had. I assume he grew more and more thankful as his family and herds grew. 

Then “one day” he lost it all. All his livestock. All his children. I can’t imagine. If we lost even a quarter of our livestock in a day, it would be more than disastrous. If we lost even one child, it would be unbearable. But he lost it all. All he had left was his wife who told Job to “curse God and die.” It’s one thing to be thankful when we have so much to be thankful for. But Job lost all that he had to be thankful for. Then what was his response? Job 1:21 - “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” Could I still say that? I don’t know. 

What kind of God would create a world where everything living in it dies? What kind of God would command us to love, and then through death, separate us from those that we love?

For starters, a God who is willing to surrender himself to death. Who is willing himself to be separated from who he most loves. 

It’s easy for us to long for a world where nothing dies. Where everything lives forever. Where there is no pain or suffering. No evil or injustice. 

I believe such a place exists. But I don’t believe we can appreciate or even understand the perfection of heaven, without first experiencing a taste of the alternative. Without experiencing the brokenness of earth. 

We know how precious life is. Only because we know death. How could we truly appreciate life otherwise? How could we truly appreciate those we love without knowing what it’s like to lose them? 

I believe God is good. And I believe he wants to share with us his goodness for all eternity. But it is only through weathering some not-so-good days that we even know what a good day is. The harder the winter, the more I long for spring, and the more thankful I am for spring when it finally comes. 

I have been a little under the weather, which I would not consider a blessing. But after having been sick, I am all the more thankful for my health. 

I know what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty, which I would not consider a blessing. But we can’t truly appreciate the satisfaction of being filled, without knowing what it’s like to be empty. 

God desires to share with us eternal life in heaven. But how can we appreciate forever without understanding time and how precious a moment is? How can we appreciate an eternity, without first learning to appreciate a day? How can we appreciate eternal life, without knowing what it’s like to be temporary? How can we appreciate all the we have, without feeling what it’s like to not have it?

The brokenness of earth doesn’t compromise the perfection of heaven. It completes it. It gives us understanding, it gives us a longing for that heavenly perfection.

And death is the doorway in between heaven and earth. 

I believe on the other side of death, everything will be restored to perfection.

Death is what separates us from those we love. But it’s also death that brings us back together and reunites us on the other side.

It’s through our death that we are temporarily separated us from those we love. And it’s through the death of Christ, that we are forever brought back together.

He not only made the heavens and the earth,
He was willing to leave the perfection of heaven, to come and experience the most hellish parts of the earth.
He came to earth, so that we might go to heaven.
He became temporary, so that we might be made eternal.
He surrendered to death, so that we might “have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
He was willing to separate himself from his father, so that we might be reunited with him. 
For that, I am forever thankful.

Have a good week.

Will