I love the fall and enjoy the transition from fall to winter. Today marks that day, at least the way that I grew up. The Friday following Thanksgiving is the first day that it’s acceptable to introduce Christmas decorations and music, eggnog lattes and peppermint mochas. I love Christmas music and the richness found in the traditional lyrics. Thanksgiving naturally marks a time to remember what we’ve been afforded to enjoy and protected and kept from, those things that we are reminded to be thankful for. I have a few things to be thankful for.
Among those that I’ve been afforded, I recently accepted a permanent position with Starbucks. About three weeks ago, my internship transitioned to permanent employment and I accepted the position of an entry level financial analyst. I have enjoyed my time thus far in the new position and am excited for the learning opportunity that it presents me with. The new job has also provided me with the ability to begin seriously searching for a home. I have begun working with a mortgage broker and real estate agent and hope to find something within the next few months, but am not in a huge hurry and am more concerned with finding just what it is I’m looking for.
Do you ever have those moments in life when you arrive at the place of recognition that God is good despite my failures and inconsistancies? Last weekend, my dad and I were able to experience that in a very practical way. Like many fall weekends, we spent it in eastern washington enjoying a dose of bird hunting. We were on this ranch that the state has acquired in an effort to restore wildlife habitat and were quite a distance from our truck. We were the only car parked in the off-road, gravel lot. I stopped walking to the sound of a car alarm in the distance. I brought it to my dad’s attention and we were sure it was our vehicle, as there were no others in the immediate area. Despite our distance, we began a combination of walking and running back towards the truck. We knew we wouldn’t make it there in time to have any influence on the outcome, but were certain we wouldn’t be able to enjoy our adventure with the thought of returning to a busted up vehicle. As we ran we thought of everything contained in the truck-a weekend’s worth of gear, my purse was hidden, but not very well, and my dad remembered that he had left his wallet in the cupholder. He beat himself up for the simple mistake and we became more and more convinced that we were the victims. In fact, he began to worry if the truck would be there at all. We’ve all heard the stories of how most thieves can be in and gone in seconds. We finally crested a hill were we could see the parking lot and were comforted that it was still present. We came upon it and none of the windows were broken and the wallet remained in the cupholder. It was a lesson of sorts to be better stewards of our possessions, namely our wallets and purses, but more importantly, a reminder of how our God watches over us even when we fail. Our attitude quickly changed from one of disappointment from an unproductive weekend to one of thankfulness for our God’s watchful eye.
Okay, this is becomming a very lengthy post, but I must tell of one more opportunity to cultivate a thankful spirit. I was coming home from work one day last week and I was about 10 minutes from home, talking on the phone with Tamara – bless her heart, she endured the whole incident, and was on the verge of a heart attack when a rather large object came at my windshield right at about eye level on the driver’s side. I still don’t know what it was, but it apparently wanted in my car badly. It hit the windshield and nearly came through-the entire area of impact was inverted. Glass went everywhere in the interior of my car, in my hand, hair, and even in the backseat. I was probably going 50 mph, certainly fast enough to cause a fatality had the object come all the way through the windshield. I found myself with a steep glass bill, but was protected from any harm. I could have easily swerved off the road, gotten glass in my eyes, or worse yet, suffered a severe injury from the object. But I didn’t, I was protected. Watchful eyes.
