Come Ye Thankful People Come

Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable. One generation will commend Your works to the next, and they shall proclaim Your mighty acts.

Psalm 145-2-4

Another Thanksgiving is almost upon us!  I honestly can't believe it!  I don't know if it's because I just came off of four weeks of working full-time covering my part-time position along with a co-worker's very busy full-time position or the fact that Thanksgiving is indeed earlier this year, but here we are!

This year it will just be my husband and I traveling to New Jersey where we will spend Thanksgiving at my brother Kevin and sister-in-law Carolyn's home with my niece and nephew and will be joined by my parents, my brother Bryan, sister-in-law and niece Meghan and Carolyn's family.  It is my absolute FAVORITE holiday.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family where holidays are filled with love, laughter, and good food.

I have soooo much to be thankful for this year!

It would be a very long blog post were I to list an entire year's worth of thanks, but I thought I would share a few of those things that I have been thankful for, especially recently.

Starting off with the arrival of my second grandchild, Chase Ray!  He was born on November 4th at 11:45 p.m.   I had the unbelievable privilege of being present for his birth!   I am still in awe of the absolute miracle of childbirth, not to mention seeing yet another grandchild come into the world right before my eyes!

I wondered how I could possibly love another grandchild as much as I love Lexi, but as soon as I saw Chase my heart burst with love...

My whole world right here.  <3

...And I would say his big sister felt the same way.  <3

I am also very thankful for a winterized screened in porch!  I found plans on Pinterest for how to make DIY panels to cover the screens using 20 gauge vinyl, gaff tape, grommets and eye hooks at a fraction of the cost that it would be to buy professional custom made panels.  My husband and son-in-law finished up yesterday. Today Michael and I rearranged furniture and brought up our portable fireplace/heater.  We have plans to put a Christmas tree with lights out there and who knows, maybe with the greenhouse effect and the heater, we will be able to have Christmas dinner out on the porch!  All I know is that it will be sooo nice to still utilize our porch even on 30 degree days.  Our porch is such a happy place for me.  :-)

I am so thankful for my church family, our small group members and the women who participated in our recent Ladies Bible Study.   I have experienced some of the sweetest fellowship at our new church home and am soo very grateful for each and every member.

And last but not least, I am so very thankful for precious friendships that have grown through the blogging community.  Even though we may never meet in person, I look forward to the day when we all stand before the throne praising God together.

I shared in last year's Thanksgiving post my favorite hymn for the holiday, and I wanted to share it again.  I've been finding myself singing it to myself the past few days, and I absolutely LOVE the Mormon Tabernacle's rendition of it.

So without further adieu, my favorite Thanksgiving hymn is, Come Ye Thankful People Come

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

1. Come, ye thankful people, come, 

raise the song of harvest home; 

all is safely gathered in, 

ere the winter storms begin. 

God our Maker doth provide 

for our wants to be supplied; 

come to God's own temple, come, 

raise the song of harvest home. 

2. All the world is God's own field, 

fruit as praise to God we yield; 

wheat and tares together sown 

are to joy or sorrow grown; 

first the blade and then the ear, 

then the full corn shall appear; 

Lord of harvest, grant that we 

wholesome grain and pure may be. 

3. For the Lord our God shall come, 

and shall take the harvest home; 

from the field shall in that day 

all offenses purge away, 

giving angels charge at last 

in the fire the tares to cast; 

but the fruitful ears to store 

in the garner evermore. 

4. Even so, Lord, quickly come, 

bring thy final harvest home; 

gather thou thy people in, 

free from sorrow, free from sin, 

there, forever purified, 

in thy presence to abide; 

come, with all thine angels, come, 

raise the glorious harvest home. 

Henry Alford

May you all be richly blessed this Thanksgiving by God's bountiful goodness and grace.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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