As I write this, it’s late night and I can’t sleep.

I sip my hot tea trying to quiet a cough that persists.

Yet I smile.

All is quiet.

But it wasn’t earlier.

The chatter.

The laughter.

The quiet conversations.

I am thankful.

I got the biggest hug from a little four year old.

A phone call from a son too far away.

A smile and a text from my other son.

And the presence of my “baby” girl and her family.

We cooked.

We ate.

We laughed.

We were together.

We remembered those not with us, noticed their empty spaces at the table and around the living room, and wished they were here.

I missed the extra laughter and the noise of three more little ones whose hugs I await!

And we prayed with some tears for those wrestling with illness and heartache at this time and on this day.

In it all, we gave thanks to the Lord for who He is, all He has done, and all we have been given.

TODA!

I heard that Hebrew word described in a podcast this week: Give thanks!*

It’s neither passive nor out of duty; it’s an action word that rightly flows out of the attitude of our hearts and the recognition of God’s goodness.

It is tied to worship – a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to bring glory to God and encouragement to others!

It is good to give thanks to the LORD!

In the blessings and the burdens.

In the joy and the tears.

In the ease and the struggles.

In the comfortable and the uncomfortable.

In the very good and the incredibly stifling moments.

“Give thanks to the LORD for HE is good; His steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 136)

It isn’t that circumstances always feel “thanks-worthy;” and many are simply devastating as we walk this life in a fallen world full of beauty and hard.

People fail us.

Circumstances can be overwhelming.

Loss of various kinds is real.

The unknown and “what’s next” can be as difficult as what we see.

That is why we notice that God uses the phrase “sacrifice of praise” to Him.

It can feel like a gut-punch at times to praise Him, to thank Him in the midst of some places in life where our natural response would be anything but thanks!

We choose, sometimes with hands lifted feebly, to “offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His Name.”  (Hebrews 13:15)

He enables and we respond for our gratitude is rooted in the character of God Himself!

Yes, sometimes it feels like a harder sacrifice, a choice to honor the LORD in the midst, but it is a confession and an acknowledgment of who He is!

And my thank you is to lead me to living out that attitude and responding to others by whatever means they need not according to my comfort level or what I may “feel” like doing.  But it will likely look different for every person we are called to love in action!

My rest is not in what I have, how I feel, who I am, or how relationships and circumstances are faring.

My rest is in the good God who is unchanging and true!

My rest takes root as I intentionally look for reasons to give thanks even in the shadows.

As redeemed children of God who rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ for us, we walk in the “now and not yet” as we await His glory to be revealed either as He returns or calls us home!

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is!”  I John 3:2

We are children of the King waiting with anticipation and sometimes with tears but always for His glory as we turn our eyes to Him and point with bold affirmation to the One who has redeemed us, called us by name, and in whose grace we now stand!

We may tremble but we stand.

We may feel any manner of hurt, but He holds us.

And we respond in thanks!

Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song on Thanksgiving Day that found he and his wife sick and so not with their family and a particular line stays with me!**

“If God is good and God is faithful, there is reason to be thankful!”

God is good.

God is faithful.

So, there is reason to give Him thanks!

Being thankful is a choice; giving up that sacrifice of praise is a response to His goodness.

As the youngest of our little ones likes to say, with arms wide open and a huge smile across his excited face when he has accomplished something he finds amazing: “TADA! Look what I have done!”

The goodness of God is amazing!

TADA!

Look what He has done!

So, then…

TODA!

Give God thanks!

“Come and see what God has done; He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man. Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what He has done for my soul! Blessed be God for He has not…removed His steadfast love for me.” Psalm 66:5, 16, 20

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  2 Corinthians 9:15

*Podcast: Culture Proof with Wil and Meeke Addison Episode 257, November 26, 2024

**Steven Curtis Chapman song: https://x.com/StevenCurtis/status/1862310516963578342