FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
THANKSGIVING FOR A LIFE SET APART
November is my favorite Autumn month. Thinking about Autumn, I came across the story of the varied career of novelist, Charles McCarry. In addition to being the author of THE TEARS OF AUTUMN, which isn’t really about Autumn but about the JFK assassination, McCarry served as assistant to the Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower administration and did two stints in the CIA as an undercover operative. His experience with the CIA more than amply prepared him for a writing career in which he was described by THE WALL STREET JOURNAL in 2013 as being “the dean of American spy writers.” But McCarry was almost never born. McCarry explains: “My mother became pregnant with me at the age of 39. She had nearly died while giving birth to my only sibling. Her doctor, who believed the second pregnancy was a serious threat to her life, advised abortion. But my mother refused to accept that advice. Just before she died at age 97, I asked her why. She replied, “I wanted to see who you were going to turn out to be.” The same can be said of God’s plan for us. Long before we enter this world, God has his hand upon us. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of this when he wrote, “The word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’” (Jer 1:5).
Autumn is a month for giving thanks—thanks to those who have served our nation in the military. And because it is an election month, we should thank those who are willing to sacrifice their privacy and personal time in order to serve our country. It is also a month in which we pause on the fourth Thursday of the month to give thanks to God for his benevolence to our nation. We should give thanks for his patience and grace in that we have not always behaved well. But this Thanksgiving, let me encourage us to give thanks for the destiny God created each of us for. Give thanks that you were born and that he has preserved your life so that you can realize, in the words of Paul, the “good works which God in advance prepared for us to do” (Eph 2:10). Our greatest act of Thanksgiving should be to work with God to do his good work in the uniqueness of our skills and life experiences. To God be the glory. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Pastor Mike
