Unbridled Joy and Hearts Filled With Gratitude

Here’s the setting: it was somewhere around the autumn of 2008, and I was stationed in Syracuse, NY. My sister, her husband, and their four children decided to travel to be with me for Thanksgiving, driving all the way from Indiana. At the time, the three older children were teenagers and had already decided that after the visit with Aunt Deb, they would continue on to visit friends further east where they had previously lived. So, the family came in two cars with Dad, mom, and the youngest in one car and the three teens in the other.

What I didn’t know was that the two groups had decided to have an “Amazing Race” on their journey to add a bit of fun and competition to the long drive. There were specific stops along the way for gathering photographic evidence. There were certain things that they had to find and collect. There were activities that they had to engage in. There were information gathering stops to make. And at the end of it all, having completed all the assigned tasks, whichever car arrived at my house first would be the winner!

I was relaxing in my home, blissfully unaware of the heated competition barreling toward me, when three teenagers crashed through my front door and immediately demanded I sign some documents to confirm they were the winners. Within minutes, the second car arrived in the driveway, and with the same energetic force, the “adults” (with their youngest child) ran into my kitchen wanting me to determine them the winners. We spent the next several minutes combing through the evidence and reviewing all the required exercises of the race to ensure that everything had been done properly before declaring the final winners. I still recall the excited chattering and laughing that went on and on. It was so noisy and joyful! What a great start to our Thanksgiving holiday; it was the best!

I think that’s the approach that the psalmist was encouraging when he said: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name,” (Psalm 100:4).

One writer suggests that this invitation is for the whole world to come to God’s Temple and enter its sacred spaces with unbridled joy and hearts filled with gratitude. God has been so good to us; He is worthy to be praised! Our thanksgiving to God must be evident not just on one day of the year, but throughout the year.

The joy and excitement that come with our echoes of thanksgiving can be heard at the gates of Heaven!

This year, whatever your activity — whether it be an “Amazing Race,” a quiet day of contemplation, or a busy family day with loved ones — make it a day of unbridled joy and hearts filled with gratitude! He has done great things!

I fondly remember not only the excited entry of my sweet family, but also their exit as they left a few days later, allowing me to reclaim the silence and tranquility of single living. It was a Thanksgiving to remember! But with a grateful heart, I raise my unbridled joy, and my soul is filled with gratitude to God that He continues to do great things!