Thankful for Family

As I think about Thanksgiving, I have a number of things to list. Of course, my spiritual blessings and my wife and daughters would be at the top of the list. I would also have to include my church family, as well. I miss my Sunny Hills church family back in California. One of our Elders and his wife from Sunny Hills came to visit us this weekend and it was so special to be with them. It made me again give thanks for such a loving family that helped raise our children and mature me in my relationship with the Lord. It also made me appreciate even more my Maryland Heights church family where I served the Lord earlier here in St. Louis back in the eighties. From time to time someone from Maryland Heights will venture over to the McKnight Rd. church, were I currently minister, and it is so great to see them. It is like seeing family again, because it is! And then there is my new family here at McKnight. What a blessing to be here and get to know this great group of people! I am so blessed by my church family! All over the world, I have family! It is hard to explain it to people who haven’t experienced it, but it is so great to be a part of the Body of Christ! Paul said to the Philippian church, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:3-6 NIV) He was thankful for the memory of his brothers and sisters in Christ, for their partnership in the Gospel. It brought him great joy to think of what they had experienced together in the Kingdom, even when it was in great hardship. And he was thankful that they had the same purpose and goals, and confidence in the same ability to achieve them through Christ! I know what he was feeling, and this Thanksgiving as I spend it with my parents for the first time in eighteen years, I will thank God for them, and for family members all over the world with whom I will spend “thanksgiving” for eternity.

David