Season of Thankfulness

Psalm 139:13-14 ”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.”

We are entering into a season of thankfulness looking forward to Thanksgiving. Many people that are suffering from their past and present circumstances find it hard to thankful. Families dealing with food insecurity, unemployment, children born into poverty, seniors dealing with inflation on a fixed income, medical problems and even death of a loved one or homelessness, the mentally ill, the addicted. What changes that mindset from despair and fear to thankfulness? How do we minister to people in these circumstances that are magnified during the holidays? For me, is to realize that everyone has some circumstances that affect us negatively, so we are not alone. So how do we overcome? How do we minister to the people who are dealing with these circumstances? I go back to the beginning. The right tools make a task possible. Do you crochet or knit? Then you need crochet hooks and specialized thread or needles and yarn for knitting and you can’t mix them up The kind of thread or yarn, the size of the hooks or needles, depends on what you intend to create. I think about what kind of needles did our Creator use when He began to knit us together in our mother’s womb? Of course, the Bible here is using a word picture, a metaphor. Right? Well…. Not so fast…Keep this metaphor in mind as you google a diagram of DNA on your smartphone. Do you see it? As I look at DNA diagrams, it seems this word picture may be a bit more literal than I had first imagined. DNA strands look a lot like yarn strands being woven together to make a scarf or baby blanket, don’t you think?

And that’s just the point! Our Creator works intentionally. We are not the product of mindless forces set in motion by the random collision of sperm and egg. We were deliberately knitted together. Personally crafted. Individually made. Our Creator gave us life itself. He ordered the details of our individual genes and guides there expression. He has done this from our very beginning from before the moment we took our first breath.

· Whether you were carried full term or were a preemie

• Whether you had brown, blond or red hair—or any hair at all

• Whether you were wanted and dearly loved or abandoned by your human parents

Your heavenly Father wanted you with all his heart. He cared for you—and still cares for you—with endless love, boundless compassion. When sin and the circumstances of life in this sinful world spoiled His creations beyond recognition, He sent Jesus, his perfect Son--not to recall and destroy us but to make our complete restoration possible:

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. John 3:17-18

So I am very thankful to all of you who pray for the staff and volunteers who are on the front lines, for those of you who support us financially, and for those of you who support the Christian Caring Center in giving of food and holding food drives, making of casseroles and soup, giving of clothing and “stuff”, etc. All of these things pull us together to make an army of believers coming together to give overcoming love to people in Jesus name!

Madelyn C. Sutton

Executive Director