...giving thanks for those who have gone on ahead

Thanksgiving...a time when we stop ...
and celebrate the bounty of our lives...
a final banquet of colors, abundance...
and all the fruits of this life...



glorious color that is in a way, a warning...
of the cold, death of winter...
that will soon have us in it's grip ...

for many... a time of celebration with loved ones...
for some...a time of grief and loss...
made all the harder because of the festiveness...
and emphasis on being with loved ones that abounds...

if you have lost loved ones...
are watching someone dear slip away...
or are in the moment of grief that death brings...
it is hard to be "thankful"...



we remember as if it were only yesterday...
the last time we saw them...
a passing smile after church...
a wave across the parking lot...
shared laughter at a joke in passing...

it was all so "normal"...
of course, we'd see them next week...
then... we'd hear that they were ill...
perhaps in the hospital...



but those moments happen for us all...
so we'd say a prayer for them...
and go on about our lives...
with hardly a thought...

until we heard...



they were gone...

a sudden episode...
a lingering illness taking it's ultimate toll...
a massive coronary...
whatever the reason... they were gone...

I believe, to a better place...
their reward as good and faithful servants...
and that I'll see them again...when I go there too...
as will we all...eventually...

this year... it's happened far more often...
than I have ever experienced before...
and taken several people who were a part...
of the fabric of my life...

people, I knew, saw every week and liked...

people, I now will never see again in this life...

and I will surely miss...



so this year, as I give thanks...
I will be especially thankful for lives shared with me...
by those who are no longer with us...
especially...

Alma, Darlene, Claudina...and now Dorothy...

may Almighty God welcome you into His presence in peace...
may all those who mourn your passing be comforted...
secure in the knowledge of your place with Jesus...
and looking forward to seeing you again...
when we too "go home" to be with Him...

"come, ye thankful people, come...
raise the song of harvest home...
all is safely gathered in...
e're the winter storms begin...

God our maker, doth provide...
for our wants to be supplied...
come, to God's own temple, come...
raise the song of harvest home..."
[Hymn, "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come"
hymn tune: St George's Windsor...
tune :G.J.Elvey, text:H.Alford]