November 4

Ezekiel 10:1-11:25; Hebrews 6:1-20; Psalm 105:16-36; Proverbs 27:1-2

[Fair warning: Today's post is super-long and very much related to personal experiences.  I"m only sorta sorry!]

It's November.  I love November.  It gets dark early at night.  You can wear sweaters (at least in theory - SoCal has had some hot Novembers!) and slippers.  Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, is at the end of it.  We do all our Christmas shopping this month, which is fun as we think about what our children and loved ones would like.  It has 30 days, which has always seemed like a nice, round number for a month.

Another reason I love November is our leaf tradition.  This year, like each of the last eight years, as we walk around the neighborhood, we collect fallen leaves.  Once home, I trace these leaves onto autumn-colored card stock and cut them out.  Each night at dinner, every member of our family (and any guests) chooses a paper leaf and puts his/her name on one side with the date.  On the other side, we write what we are grateful for on that particular day.  It's concrete and specific.  We then tape these leaves to our mantle.  It is a daily, on-going practice of gratitude for a month that ends with a great celebration of giving thanks.

Some of the entries are hilarious, as older children attribute responses to their younger, non-speaking siblings.  Cousins and grandparents are always mentioned; our dinner menu frequently makes the cut (I do have three sons); the library and Disneyland get nods each and every year.  It is a wonderful way for us to stop and taste/see the goodness of God.

It has also, unexpectedly, become a record for our family.  Unintentionally, these leaves are now more than an expression of that day's thanksgiving.  They are a history of God's activity in our lives, both in significant and small ways.  

2009:

11/15 - by Sarah: "b4." While our fertility was always easy (a great blessing), I learned I was pregnant (with a baby we called "b4," revealed later as Levi) while Eric was in Vietnam, our house was uninhabitable due to serious plumbing issues, and our only car broke down on the freeway.  All the difficulty paled in comparison to this wonderful gift.  

11/18 - by Caleb, then six: "God is our friend."  True, profound, insightful, encouraging. Our son knew God loves him - what more could we ask?

2010:

11/3 - by a friend who ate dinner with us: "A solidly intact marriage after some big trials."  Praise God, their marriage is still strong years later.

11/8 - by Noah, then almost six: "My stomach is better."  A celebration of the great gift of good health that comes through the way God made our bodies.

2011:

11/14 - by Hannah, then three: "YOU, Daddy!  Daddy, I love you!"  Such a free gift of enthusiastic love from daughter to father, followed by hugs and kisses.

11/26 - by my brother-in-law, Ian: "My wife, Esther, and our baby!"  After a year of trying (and not succeeding) to conceive, my sister and her husband rejoiced at being 8+ months pregnant.

2012: (seems to have gone temporarily missing, but I know we were thankful, among other things, for "Q" - our daughter Naomi Mae who was born in early December)

2013:

11/1 - by Caleb, then ten: "A mom that loves me enough to have half-hour conversations with me about issues."  A much-needed affirmation in my mothering, as I fumble around with the needs of these young lives.  

11/5 - by my mom: "The 700 people gathered at Grace as MOSAIX [a multi-ethnic church conference that Eric convened]."  How cool is that?  All these people from all these churches all over Southern California, meeting to talk about how to do church better!

2014:

11/20 - by Noah, then almost ten: "Knowing Mom and Dad are not going to get divorced." This sturdiness, this certainty, is a generational gift for our children (and us), as we have intact marriages back to my great-grandparents.

11/23 - by Caleb, then eleven: "Parkcrest."  Changing churches after 18 years for Eric's job was difficult and painful.  Caleb grieved the hardest.  To see that a year later, he would be prompted to thank God for the new church was a great blessing.  (He actually mentioned it more than once that year.)

all month - by Naomi, then almost two: "Gahd.  Cheesus."  Sunday school answers that she blurted before we even asked for her response, but still true for her and for all of us.

2015:

11/3 - by Levi, then five: "I have a lot of brothers."  Amen and amen.  Their siblings are the greatest gifts we have given to our children, and we see how much they enjoy each other.  Every year, different kids write down specific brother/sister names.  

11/25 - by Sarah: "[Name of therapist] - in my past and in Eric's present."  This woman, grounded in the Lord and wise beyond measure, gave herself years ago to growth and intimacy in my marriage and, more recently, to bringing wholeness to hurt experienced by Eric from a friend/mentor.

2016:

11/2 - by Caleb, then thirteen: "My science teacher still being at school, allowing me to get my History book."  Panic-stricken about not being able to do his homework, he made a quick trip back to school, coming home to announce, "Now I know that God loves me."

11/9 - by Levi, then six: "Precious Life."  This is a crisis pregnancy shelter where we have prepared, served, and eaten a meal a month for the last almost-decade.  For Levi to enjoy this place and these women and the giving-of-self is beautiful to me.

There are bittersweet and difficult moments recorded, too.  In 2009, my then sister-in-law gave thanks for a house she insisted on selling only five years later as part of the disintegration of her marriage to my brother.  "On a day when I needed it - the free (though expensive) and generous FORGIVENESS of God (and my family)" - my entry for 11/9/10.  Eric's and my 2011 entries were full of oblique references to the church split that we were undergoing.  In 2013, on Thanksgiving Day, a dear friend lost a baby at 22 weeks gestation. November 17, 2014 saw me giving thanks for my mother who "listens to the prompting of Scripture and the Holy Spirit - and acts" by having a very difficult, rebuking, and ultimately unsuccessful conversation with a woman pursuing sin.  2015 celebrated "conversations that lead to reconciliation," a reminder of all the reconciliation that our family has had to do in the daily-ness of living with each other.  In 2016, we were grateful (on multiple occasions) for the health, dental and vision insurance that we unfortunately needed to use.

I couldn't help but think of these leaves as I read our The One Year Bible today.  Did you see the history lesson of our psalm?  And the references to the past in Hebrews?  The psalmist reminds Israel of God's provision through Joseph (Ps. 105:17-22), of God's action through Moses and the plagues (vs. 26-36), and of God's rescue in the exodus and the wilderness (tomorrow's reading, vs. 37-41).  The writer of Hebrews goes even further back in Israel's history to reference the covenant the Lord made with Abraham (Heb. 6:13-15).  Over and over, the biblical writers rehearse their past, both good and ugly.  (We'll see this even more next week in our Psalms readings.)  All of this remembering isn't a longing for "the glory days," the good ol' days gone by.  No.  It is a recounting of God's faithful activity in the past as a spur to believe in God's continued attention and goodness in the present.  Like our leaves, these portions of Scripture recall us to the truth of God's actions in history (our own personal story, but also all of history) so that we can trust faithfully now.

I encourage you to take a moment, today and throughout this month that leads to Thanksgiving, to rehearse the lessons of God's faithfulness in your history.  Where has he met you?  Where has he helped and provided for you in times of trouble?  Where have you needed and found his grace and mercy?  Where have you stumbled and experienced correction that led to repentance and restoration?  Where have you rejoiced in the extravagant blessings of a generous God?  And as you remember these moments, share them.  Tell others of how God has been faithful to you.  Tell your children and grandchildren, your neighbors and friends, your spouses and roommates.

"Let the redeemed of the Lord say so..." (Ps. 107:2, KJV).

- Sarah Marsh

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