Thanksgiving Delights

Lying in my sister's bed half asleep, I listen to the irregular lullaby of the constant hum of my home. Mom giving directions, the click of my sister's fingers on the keyboard doing her NaNoWriMo story, my little siblings bantering, clacking chairs and the whining sweeper in preparation for the invasion of more people later, my dad clearing his throat, 101.3 The River providing the background Christmas music.

The past two days I was at home in the evening for the first time in weeks. Between school and work, only weekends have found me home in the evening. Every time I find myself home all day, I realize I forgot how much I love being home, with nothing else to do.

I delight in things that just happen as a course of life at my house. My other sister coming in, counting, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, trying to figure out if we have enough chairs. As usual, we don't. Isn't that a happy thought?

From downstairs, I hear snatches of conversation like my little brother saying he wasn't something, and Dad replying, "My engineering son." My little brother whose feet have officially well surpassed everyone else's like his big brother before him (except for his, of course), who will too soon surpass me in height.

My littlest brother comes in to ask Amy if she wants to hear the parody of a Christmas song he and Melody made up: "Snippy, snippy, snippy, let me cut off all your hair; snippy, snippy, snippy, until none of it is there!"

These are the sorts of things I am thinking about this year as I write my traditional yearly Thanksgiving Day post.

We sang seven songs at church on Sunday, several more than usual. My awesome brother-in-law pointed this out to me, and as we sang some delightful songs, such as Awake, Awake, I looked around at my family.

Family was the word that came to mind as I drank in the moment of us all singing together, the song leaders playing, the children filling up the aisle for the special Thanksgiving offering. I noticed one of the little Speweik children crawling the wrong direction down the aisle as his brother tries to get him to get up, the seven little dark-haired brothers in a close line, each clutching his little Ziploc bag of coins, an energetic friend of mine raising his hands, bouncing, and closing his eyes as he belts out the song. I looked down the aisle Stephen and I chose to sit in at my literal family, everyone there, with Eric and Ruthie an aisle or two ahead, and impressed the scene in my mind.

I am thankful for my family. I am thankful for my new subset of family, my in-laws which are the best siblings-in-law I could possibly imagine. I am thankful that for all 22 years of my life I have never been without my family.

Changes make you think about things that have been which you may never have appreciated before. I realized that I have taken having my family for granted. That not everyone and not forever does one have all their family with them. My younger siblings will not.

And I am thankful for how God has blessed me.

This year what I have been in awe about is how God delights in us. He does not need us or our works. Our constant failing does not make Him love us less. He never loved us for what we could do for Him. When I sin over and over again in the same way, when I forget Him, when I am half-hearted about the One who loves me with an unfailing love, who bought me and keeps me, He does not let me go. He does not give up--even when I do, though He has never given me any reason to.

With that as your background, your foundation, your peace, how can one not be filled with joy? And joy and thankfulness are inextricably entangled.

So because I love doing it, a random list of things I am thankful for.

Christmas is less than a month away!
My siblings are coming over today.
I am much better at my job than I used to be.
My manager and coworkers
Music (although there is precious little Thanksgiving music...)
My friends from Cru
Snow!
Christmas gives an excuse for getting people presents.
My sign language class
My new laptop
The newly discovered ease of finding music on Spotify and finding songs I had forgotten about for years
The ease of communication via technology
Having a phone
Christmas trees
Applesauce
Inside jokes
Scripture
Have I mentioned my family?
Traditions like Grandma's scotcheroos, playing games, and looking at Black Friday ads

There are some randomish bits. I could go on forever.

Being thankful for things makes me wonder, though. Can you be really thankful for something if you take it for granted? If you don't appreciate the time you have to use it?

That's one reason I am thankful for writing. It makes me think about things and convicts me.

What about you? What are you delighting in this Thanksgiving?