Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. It’s an American holiday set up to provide us with an opportunity to remember how blessed we are. I suspect in practice people get more excited about the food, the shopping, and the holiday movie debuts than giving thanks, but I could be wrong about that.

Myself? I tend not to get too excited about Thanksgiving Day. Many years finds me working, as I should be doing tomorrow. I do think it’s one good way to spend the day. It’s a practical way to demonstrate gratitude and a great way to give back some of what I’ve been given.

As a matter of fact, I was getting ready for work this evening when a random iTunes choice reminded me of one thing for which I am profoundly grateful. iTunes plucked Barlow Girls’ “I Need You to Love Me” out of the thousands of songs it had available. I stopped in my tracks and just about cried. I don’t have words to explain how grateful I am that God does love me. It’s amazing, you know?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent His Son not to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16, 17

Not condemned, but saved to life everlasting, because “God so loved.” Let me take a deep breath and sit with that for a moment. Can you imagine what kind of love that must be? How vast, how deep, how unchanging, how… incomprehensible… unfathomable… It’s beyond my ability to grasp, which might be why I find it overwhelming. I don’t really have any thing that I can relate to it.

You know, I’ll never have to sit with a flower, plucking petals and intoning, “He loves me.” A petal falls, and the next is plucked. “He loves me not.” He always loves me. His love is unwavering and certain. I’ll never be handed a stone with which to sate my hunger instead of bread. His love doesn’t play games. He may provide for my need in some unexpected fashion, but the provision will be ample. I’ll never be able to escape or be so stinking rotten that my stench will frighten off any loving advance. His love is always present no matter the height, the depth, the time, or the opposition. I’ll never be so broken that I’m disqualified. His love can find the smallest fragment and fuse a person whole. I’ll never not be worth His time or effort. I’ll never be too much work for Him. His love is everlastingly patient and kind. His love bears, believes, hopes, and endures. His love never gives up on me.

To make imagining a likeness even more impossible, I am not the only person whom He loves like this. He loves the whole world. He loves YOU.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a great day.