Being Canadians and then living in the United States for 9 years, we take the chance to celebrate two Thanksgivings every year. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving earlier in October, and now we get to do so again - in Haiti.
It is amazing what you can find here in Haiti. We were able to buy a 12 pound frozen turkey, potatoes, yams, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie mix. We are looking forward to celebrating with three guys Heather and the kids met the other day at the local asphalt plant. Dave is from Iowa, and the two others are men in charge from the Dominican Republic.
The Scriptures say that "you crown the year with your bounty." (Psalm 65:11) These reflections of Charles Spurgeon also reflect our thanks.
"All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake his mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave us a legacy of darkness, but our God never ceases to shine upon his children with beams of love. Like a river, his lovingkindness is always flowing, with a fulness inexhaustible as his own nature. Like the atmosphere which constantly surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all his creatures; in it, as in their element, they live, and move, and have their being. Yet as the sun on summer days gladdens us with beams more warm and bright than at other times, and as rivers are at certain seasons swollen by the rain, and as the atmosphere itself is sometimes fraught with more fresh, more bracing, or more balmy influences than heretofore, so is it with the mercy of God; it hath its golden hours; its days of overflow, when the Lord magnifieth his grace before the sons of men. Amongst the blessings of the nether springs, the joyous days of harvest are a special season of excessive favour. It is the glory of autumn that the ripe gifts of providence are then abundantly bestowed; it is the mellow season of realization, whereas all before was but hope and expectation. Great is the joy of harvest. Happy are the reapers who fill their arms with the liberality of heaven."
So we hope you can be truly thankful and pray this prayer with us:
"Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all. We bless you for your creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we beg you, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives." (The Book of Common Prayer)
Spurgeon, C. H. (1995). Morning and evening : Daily readings (August 1 PM). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
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