“I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been born in God’s thought, and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.” – David Elginbrod, George MacDonald, page 77

One of the most difficult aspects of the Thanksgiving season for me is one of the most fundamental reasons for giving thanks: that God has made me. 

I daily live with my past and my thoughts. These two cohorts work together in me to accuse and tear down, especially when I finally have a moment to breathe and to reflect. They build in me a remorse for life, a deep sadness over my own state of sinfulness, robbing me of the joy for which I was made. I imagine many have difficulty during the holidays. It is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration, but the years have hardened us trampling the childlike wonder and trust. I often think, “This cannot be what God had in mind.”

And dear ones, it is not what God had in mind. For our own vision of life has suffered greatly in this present world; at the hands of our own corruption of the good gift of free will, as well as at the hands of others. Even now, as I stare at the lights on our Christmas tree, the lights seem much dimmer than I recall as a child. Yet, there is light. In thinking on George MacDonald’s quote, I remember that God made me. The perfectly good Creator of the Universe had in mind a beautiful creature when He thought of me. He has intended me for goodness and truth. As my vision for life wanes, His does not. He will daily reveal in me truth. He will daily love me in a manner foreign to my selfish heart. He has died so that I might live.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” I so often pass by this passage without seriously applying it to my thought life. What God made was good (me), and intended for the beauty of relationship with Himself; a true contentedness, a love like no other. As I have walked away and filled my mind and my life with rebellion, He has taken the consequence of my corruption: death. He has changed my destination and defeated my ruin by overturning my death sentence with new life. There is nothing I can imagine that compares to the glory of this, His salvation. God has intentionally made me and offers me daily renewal even in the midst of running away.

This Thanksgiving, I will spend time in prayer thanking my Good Creator for the gift of life, even my life. I will reflect on contentedness and on being the recipient of amazing grace and unfathomable love. I hope you will join me in prayer in this season of thanksgiving. I hope that wherever you are in life right now, you will also see that there is still light in the world.

Psalm 139:13-18

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.