Thanksgiving

1 ship 90 feet long and 24 feet wide.
110 passengers and 15-20 crew.
66 days at sea, one bad storm, one death.
Landing at the wrong place and potential mutiny, but some quick thinking resulting in a civil covenant.
A year of starvation, fear, lonelieness, mistakes, bad decisions, and sickness. A year when 46 of the 110 people die. Imagine if 46 people in your church died this year of sickness and hunger. No home would be untouched.

But at the end of this first year of so much sadness and pain, what do they do? They invite their unbelieving neighbours over and they thank God for His mercy and grace. Not because they didn't love those who died. Not because the year wasn't really that bad. But because God told them to in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Because Job did. Because Romans 8:28 had taught them that no matter how much they didn't understand, all things were still working together for good for those who loved God. And because they really grasped who they were as sinners and what God had done for them in Christ. They knew they could trust that the same God who sent His only Son to die in their place, to bring them from death to life, had a plan and a purpose for all that had happened to them, and at the end of the day they could rest in His sovereignty whether they understood it or not.

Because they had their eye on the big picture of who God is and what He had done on their behalf, they were able to genuinely thank Him for His love and care at the end of possibly the hardest year of their life.

It's a humbling thought.