Lessons in Thankfulness

Just after hitting Publish for the previous post, I got a phone call. My husband had been in a car accident.

He's OK. The car is totalled.

It could have been so much worse. No one else was involved in the accident. My husband could have been hurt pretty badly. Now, all we have lost is the car. Thank God for His grace and mercy.

At some point last night, between the phone calls and arrangements, waiting for my husband to get home, I lay down on the bed and put my sore foot up. And I thought how blessed and thankful I am that I am waiting for him to come home. We had been so close to losing him.

Or he could have been in an ambulance, or in the hospital. At the same emergency ward where I had spent the previous evening.

I was actually twice at the emergency ward last week: I got an infection in my operated ankle. First round, on Thursday, the infection was diagnosed and I got antibiotics. Second round, on Saturday, I went there again because I got a fever. They had told me to come back if I got a fever, because it might indicate the infection has gone deeper, into the bone and the metal plate, and that would require surgery.

I don't know what the fever was. According to the blood tests, the infection was beginning to go away. The surgeon reassured me that the ankle looked better. So, no need for another surgery. No need to stay at the hospital. Thankfulness. Thankfulness in the middle of waiting at the ward, praying for the people there. Thankfulness for the friends whom I knew were praying for me.

Thank God for antibiotics and the prayers of friends.

We don't celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving in Finland. But I can't help reflecting that this has been a Thanksgiving weekend indeed.

Unexpected things happen. Bad things happen. 

But, thanksgiving.

I'll just quote from Ann Voskamp: "...if you let something steal your thanksgiving, you let something steal your joy, and if you let something steal your joy, you let something steal your strength. "  (Go read the rest of her beautiful parable at her website.)

I'm not as joyful and as strong in thanksgiving as I might be. I'm still learning. Could I have been thankful if my husband had got hurt? Or worse? I'm glad I did not have to find out.

Nothing, no day together, can be taken for granted.

It's Thanksgiving every day.