By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Tis the season to be thankful.  Actually, that is an incredible statement.  We should be thankful all year long.  And, we should remember to express our thankfulness all year long as well.  I mentioned to my church family about the practice of going around the room or the dinner table at our Thanksgiving gatherings and each person taking a turn to tell something for which they are thankful.  While that’s an honorable and wonderful idea, I genuinely don’t care for it.  But, let me tell you why.

I am so very thankful for so very many things.  I have a wonderful, caring, and very patient wife-mate of nearly three and a half decades.  I have three grown children, and two of them are married.  Three of our four parents are still with us.  We live in a wonderful neighborhood in a good home.  I was raised by two Godly parents with the influence of Godly grandparents on each side.  I’ve had good jobs, good schooling, wonderful friends, and a loving Savior Who has given it all to me.

That’s the problem.  I have too many things for which to be thankful.  And I tend to be a pretty emotional person.  To ask me to vocalize my thankfulness is to expect my eyes to fill up and overflow, my throat to close up, and my heart to palpitate, because I simply cannot tell you how grateful I am without crying about the goodness of God.

The picture I’ve chosen to share with you is from a very old church building in the smoky mountains of Tennessee.  Simple old wooden pews.  If they could talk, they would tell story after story of the goodness of God and His abundant blessings upon His people.  Those old pews would speak of inspirational sermons, angelic music, and testimonies that would make your jaw drop.  Those simple old pews recognize the goodness and greatness of God to me.  They remind me how very fortunate I am to be where I am and to do what I do.  

My church family is like my own related family.  We love one another, support one another, and laugh and hurt with each other.  Pews represent to me friendship, companionship, cooperation, and blessings from above, because they are the seats of the ones I love.  — Just like the chairs around the Thanksgiving table hold the ones I love.

For what am I thankful?  I cannot begin to express.  I tear up just writing this.  Oh, I know.  If that moment comes this year when a family member suggests we go around the room and express something for which we are thankful, I actually think I have an answer this time.

I’m thankful for simple old pews.

Just a thought.