30 days of thankful...days 20 & 21

#20...2 refrigerators, stocked.
I often marvel after a grocery shopping trip.  I step back and look at my refrigerator in the kitchen, overflowing into the spare in the garage.  They are often crammed tight with good food...especially now as I prepare for Thanksgiving.  I know this is a luxury.  I know there are literally hundreds of millions of people who would give anything for what languishes on one shelf of those refrigerators.  We never go without.  We eat three squares a day plus plenty of snacks and I know that we usually take it for granted.
But then I look back at pictures of Africa...I remember Mari's thin frame and swollen belly that broke my heart the first time I bathed her.  She has forgotten, mercifully, but I have not.  She, just like her siblings, knows there is a pantry full of food that guarantees she will eat and eat well.  She doesn't remember the hunger that drove her birthmother to make the most painful decision of her life, so her daughter would "get to grow up."
I don't want to forget.  I want to eat thankfully and share generously.  I want to be a good steward of this blessing of abundance.  I want to remember that, though it is easy to zip down to the store when I need a gallon of milk, that milk still comes from Him and circumstances could easily change.  I want to keep that awareness of my desperate need for Him in every detail of life, because we are the sheep of HIS pasture.

#21...worship.
Music is truly powerful.  Songs move me deeply and stir memories that were thought to be forgotten.  They also snap me out of myself, at times, and refocus my spiritual eyes on the One who is the author of the most beautiful Song ever written.  I heard a new song a few days ago...Chris Tomlin's new recording of "How Great is our God" from his latest "Essentials" album.  This version is different because it has tracks recorded around the world...several different languages singing this beautiful song together.
It gave me chills the first time I heard it because I know every word to that song, so when it is being sung in Spanish, French, or Africanz I know what they are saying.  And it is so beautiful.
It struck me hard when I listened to it again today...it struck me how the Lord hears worship in every language all at once and He understands perfectly every single word that is sung to Him.  It reminded me of going to church in Ethiopia and standing amongst a congregation of 62 nations as we all sang out to Him...sang songs I knew from home.  How beautiful to think of the family of God, and to have that reminder of how big our God is that he gathers us ALL safely into His arms and adopts us all into His family so we can sing...many voices singing one song to Him.
Yes, I am thankful for Worship.