Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Tick, tock. Look at the clock! It is time to eat turkey!!! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because I LOVE turkey!!! There is nothing quite like sinking my teeth into a turkey leg. Oh meat, how I love you! I must confess, I probably have an abnormal love affair with turkey. I eat meat very rarely because chronic pancreatitis has destroyed most of my body's ability to make enzymes. Without enzymes, it is very hard for my body to break down fats, and proteins, and more importantly, fats and proteins often cause a bad pancreatitis attack. So, once a year, I allow myself to indulge in delicious turkey...well, perhaps it is more like a couple days of indulgence. I eat as much turkey as I can for a couple days until my pancreas is completely exhausted of all enzymes, and I can endure the pain no longer.

Why do I endure such misery for a few days of eating turkey? I think part of it is gratitude. I used to not be able to eat food by mouth. I had a feeding tube. I cannot tell you how miserable it was to not taste food on my tongue or use my teeth to chew. I have regained the ability to eat; although, I have a restricted diet of eating mostly organic fruits and vegetables. It is such a blessing once a year to sit at a table with family and enjoy a meal together. My Thanksgiving meal is one of thanks--it reminds me of how very blessed I am to be able to eat, it reminds me how blessed I am to have family to share a meal with, it reminds me how blessed I am to not be hospitalized (as I have often spent too many holidays in the past).

As I eagerly await the turkey to cook, I send up prayers to my friends around the world--to those who are far away from family to serve God on the mission field, to those fighting a good fight while being hospitalized, to those mourning the loss of a family member, to those too tired/ill to enjoy this day of feasting, to all those who have heavy burdens, to all those who glory in the Lord. May today and every day be a joyful day of thanksgiving. Soon we will all be together eating the marriage supper with Jesus. What joy it will be to see you-all then! May God richly bless you today and always.

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing. Know that the LORD He is God: it is He that made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of a His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations." (Psalm 100)