Well, my friends, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am proud to say that we survived another "Extreme Porter Family Thanksgiving"!!! My mother cooked the most fabulous meal for us, once again! We stuffed ourselves with turkey, cornbread dressing, gravy, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans AND green bean casserole, cranberry salad, broccoli casserole, corn, dinner rolls, fruit, pumpkin cake, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream! We couldn't have moved another muscle if we wanted to. That's why it was so hard to find help cleaning up the kitchen, ahem....
With all of us there, there were eight adults and nine grandchildren: my parents, James and me and our two boys, my sister, her husband and their three kids, and my brother, his wife and their four. For some reason, when these normally well-behaved cousins all gather together at Nannah & Poppa's, chaos rules! It is wonderful to see them all together, and we are so thankful and blessed that they all love each other so much. We treasure our time together, even though it can get a little crazy at times.
It's inevitable when we get together, that the noise level will continue to rise until it hits fever pitch...and then it starts coming back down to normal as we settle into the evening, playing games, watching favorite movies together, "enjoying" our extremely important philosophical discussions on religion, politics and life in general. As Dad builds a magnificent fire in the fireplace, and the children begin to fall asleep in their sleeping bags for their annual Thanksgiving night sleepover at Nannah and Poppa's, we are blessed to sit back in comfort and warmth, counting our blessings, especially the blessing of being "HOME" with the ones you love, and those who love you.
One of the highlights of this Thanksgiving evening, besides my mom's incomparable cooking, was a story that my brother, Brandon, a pastor, shared with us at the table. He had recently shared this story with his congregation as part of a sermon, and the message that went with it was very convicting...
The story he shared was very personal, as it involved his children, and how one day they nearly lost one of them. A search ensued, and after what seemed like hours had passed (which was actually only minutes), they found the child... inside their car in the garage. As Brandon went into great detail describing the search, and the feelings that overtook him throughout that entire nerve-wracking, heart-pounding ordeal, we all couldn't help but break into tears, daring to imagine how it might feel to lose one we loved with all our hearts, and what we would do or endure to find them again. We would give up everything, we would do anything, we would go anywhere...just to find them!!! That passion for finding that ONE and bringing them home takes precedence over everything else that may have ever seemed of importance in our lives. Careers, jobs, fame, fortune, popularity, homes, cars, clothing, even food, ALL take a backseat and become negligible in importance in comparison to finding the ONE you love!
Then, Brandon described how that exact feeling is exactly what the Lord feels for each one of us...each and every one who is lost. His passion for each of us is no less than what we, as parents, feel. In fact, what the Lord feels for each of us is even MUCH more than we could even imagine feeling for anyone else! And, He feels that way for us no matter what our circumstances, no matter who we are, what we have done, where we have gone...the Lord passionately wants to gather us into His arms and bring us home into His loving care. He is "Home", a home full of grace, mercy, forgiveness and love. The Bible tells us exactly how He cares for each ONE, in Luke 15:4-10:
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
The rest of Luke 15 is the story of the Prodigal Son. In this parable, Jesus tells us how the Father rejoices when the lost son returns home, even after he has left home and squandered his entire inheritance on a sinful lifestyle. The Father's irrepressible joy is shown to us in the way he is STILL LOOKING for his son to come home. In fact, he is looking so hard that he actually SEES HIM ARRIVING from far off in the distance and RUNS TO MEET HIM! He embraces him, and calls for a celebration!!! Even though the son is begging forgiveness, and that his father will take him into his home as a slave, the father says "Nonsense!", and welcomes him back home as his son, with all the rights thereof!
That is how our Father in Heaven feels about each of us. He is LOOKING for us! He RUNS to meet us!!! He takes us into his arms and embraces us!!! He CELEBRATES our homecoming!!! And He brings us into the family as one of His own, as full and rightful heirs to His Kingdom!
How incredible is it to know that we have such a Father? Oh, how much we have to be thankful for, on this and every day!
My friends, I pray that each of you will understand the true PASSION that the Lord has for YOU, personally. I pray that you will seek Him, and turn from that vacant, senseless, passionless existence you are living and RUN HOME to Him! He is looking to meet you with open arms and celebration!
And I pray that each of you who already has come Home will feel the same PASSION for SHARING THE GOSPEL WITH OTHERS, the same passion that He has for bringing us home...let us share that and lead our fellow brothers and sisters to the Lord - welcoming them HOME!!!
May God bless you on this Thanksgiving!
1 comment:
Hi,
I read your comment on "Sugar Pie"
blog. I am from GA and I am 46. As a child, I remember playing with the singsong call,"ain't no boogers out tonight..." Except, we used to say, "Grandpa shot them all last night." I guess we were more violent. OH, MY! LOL. However, I cannot remember how you actually played the game. And no one I know now even remembers the game. Can you please email me and tell me how the game was played?
my name is Rita. My email is mrncarlton@yahoo.com.
Thank you so much. I enjoyed your post.
!
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