Warned a few minutes ahead of time that I would likely be asked to say thanks at my brother-in-law and sister’s Thanksgiving table two Passages came to mind, one in Habakkuk and another in the Psalms. I quickly located the passages, and finding a scrap of paper wrote down a few fragmented thoughts. Here follow the verses that came to mind and a brief of my musings that I shared.

Though the fig trees do not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like hinds’ feet,
he makes me tread upon my high places.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

“The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want” Psalm 23:1

If we follow thanksgiving to its source we discover that it is anchored deeper than our meager or liberal reckoning of God’s blessings that life has brought our way. Ultimately gratitude is not materially caused or sourced. It is rooted in something deeper and higher, namely the invisible God who comes near us via the Spirit and Word wearing a particular suit – our Lord and shepherd. This God who comes near wearing this suit is the one David wrote of in his famous poem -Psalm 23. Note the opening words “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want”. This “I shall not want” ultimately is not rooted in something tangible and material or even social that David could see or feel. Rather it is rooted in David’s and Habakkuk’s presupposition – namely God’s relation to them as their Lord and shepherd. In every leg of his journey through this world, David started with the conclusion, i.e., God was present to him as his shepherd and this presupposition was the ultimate source of his doxology and I believe it is ours as well. 

The sacred text tells us that the invisible God comes near to us as our Lord and comforts and cares for us in lean times as well as prosperous times, in sickness and in health, in the days of our lives when we are alone too much, as well as this times when we are warmly included and surrounded by loved ones and friends; in times of personal failure when we mess up, little or big mess ups, and when we more or less carry the tune and ethic that the Spirit calls us to. Under the conviction of the Spirit and the witness of the Prophetic and Apostolic word, more or less, sometimes more, sometimes less, we are empowered to transcend the temptations to take life straight up, i.e., take it without wearing the sacred lenses. Mistakenly humans often think that they can belly up to the bar and drink life’s most bitter libation or its or its finest champagne without the sacred lens that the Good Book provides. The truth is we like David and Habakkuk need this divine presupposition. Without it our dependence on God will come unraveled, our trust in God disappear, our gratitude to God whither and atrophy. Moreover in the face of life’s changes no one is immune to pride or despair, hardness of heart, or vapid sentimentality. But in using this theoretical, conceptual language like “presupposition” I risk a false headiness as if this is a thinking game; as if we walk around with a divine presupposition in our cerebral hip pocket. Be patient I am not done yet.

If our thanksgiving(s) correlate merely to our ephemeral material, social, family, and economic blessings and these dissipate what will happen to our gratitude? What will become of our thanksgivings when the downside of life comes knocking when inclement weather arrives? When the weather of life changes, just like it swiftly changes in the Highlands in Scotland with scarcely a moment’s notice, as any experienced Scottish hiker knows full well, – what then? Life often spoils our shalom and when this occurs change tempts cheap melancholy or even despair and other toxic ferments. Sooner or later, now and then, expectedly or unexpectedly the weather of our lives changes bringing unwelcome challenges that bait and tease our spirits to open up to those toxins of the soul like anxiety, fear, hardness of heart, bitterness, anger, self-pity, moronic stoicism, and a host of other toxic habits of the heart. But over against these ”there is a river the streams whereof make glad the city (people) of God” (Psalm 46:)  This river that the psalmist writes of, I suggest is more akin to an underground river whose source is the invisible God, who out of freedom and love, has chosen to dwell with us via the Spirit and be present with us as our shepherd.

Yes, it is also true that we are often stirred to gratitude when we see tangible incarnations of God’s gracious care for us along our pathways. But could we see these little incarnations of God’s grace without wearing faith lenses, without the good shepherd presupposition? Thomas, the Gospel of John records (20:29), saw and then believed but Jesus rebuked him saying blessed are those who do not (first) see and believe. John Calvin is reputed to have reminded those under his watch that faith comes through the ear gate (not the eye gate). And Paul tersely stated, “We walk by faith and not by sight”. We often hear the phrase ‘seeing is believing’ but Jesus and the Apostles teach the opposite – believing is the presupposition for ‘seeing’ (discerning) the little yet significant incarnations of God’s gracious care along our path.

Today as I reflect on this Habakkuk text I see a bridge between Thanksgiving and Advent. Matthew, in chapter one of his Gospel,  opens up the mystery of Jesus’ birth by giving us two different names that he was to be identified. The first is “Jesus” taken from the root Joshua, meaning savior. The second name is recorded later in Chapter 1 verse 23 “his name shall be called Emmanuel”.  The meaning of this name the text explicitly states – “God with us”. We need only fill in the blanks and remember that the God who is present as Lord and shepherd is the God who is with us in every hilltop and every valley, notwithstanding the plain (yes the ‘plain’ too -the work-a-day dirty dishes day in and day out routine). If so then the memory verse Peter quoted to those under his charge, “cast all your care upon him for he cares for you”, sheds a little light on the joy and gratitude that both Thanksgiving Day and Christmas call us to re–member.

And here we may ask why for, why “cast all your care on him”?  And here follows part of my response, part of the reason in light of the point at hand. Because when we are weighted down with care, anxiety, and their ‘cousins’ i.e., other toxic habits of the heart we are not free to be grateful or joyful. Connect the dots. Suffering however dumb, stupid, and at cross purposes with the intended shalom of life that it may seem to bring us (the great spoiler of life’s shalom) subtly carries in its pouch like a mother kangaroo carries its treasured baby something hidden – hidden meaning. “The whole do not need a physician,” Jesus said”. Can we find the wellspring of true happiness, joy, and gratitude without it, i.e. without hardships and lean times, without some foul weather? I would never assert that we can’t but via the Spirit, God puts to good use the ugly underbelly of life if and when it shows itself (Romans 8:24). For how do we learn to go past the ephemeral joys unless time to time these shrivel, fail and take leave if only for a season. Here necessity is not so much the mother of invention but via the Spirit suffering (our suffering) can be a tutor and guide leading us past ephemeral pleasures to the imperishable intangible things revealed in the Good Book watered by the Spirit. Their words awakened us to life via the Spirit, calling us to courage, peace, trust, gratitude, and even joy in the midst of prosperity and/or hardship. The God who was present to David as Lord and shepherd, never absent at any juncture or mile marker of his journey, is no less present to us as we journey into and through 2024.

Among the very tangible beautiful this-worldly blessings scattered along the path of our family’s journey through 2023, the most potent gift we received was the arrival of Roxanne, second daughter of Elizabeth Lindsay and Clement and my 5th grandchild.

I am invited back in March of this new year to teach a new class of seniors at KHTS, along with 3 other schools within 60 to 70 miles away. One of these is an undergraduate college KKBBSC inside Mae-La Refuge Encampment, a school I have served many times. Another is Hill Light Seminary which I taught at several times in bygone years. Finally, there is SPHERE which was founded for the sole purpose of studying and rethinking the building blocks of a healthy society. All of these schools are part of a sisterhood of Karen Baptists that grew out of their diaspora 30 years ago when the Myanmar Military, the infamous Tatmadaw, ravaged the towns and villages of their ancient homeland slaughtering tens of thousands, precipitating a massive exodus across the Moei River into Thailand. Once they crossed the border many took refuge in the notorious rugged remote regions of Tak Province near the border.