I did not know her story, yet without words she touched my heart.
It was a difficult day for me. I had a situation that was tearing my life apart. The pain seemed to never go away. Once again, I was in church and engaging in worship. Tears flowed freely as I struggled to sing, but in truth, I could hardly pray.
At that moment, I saw her. She was on stage singing with the worship team. In the midst of the song, she raised her hand. I do not know how I knew, but I just felt it was a true sacrifice of praise. She was raising her hand in her pain and choosing to believe God despite what she had gone through. And I knew, by her example, I could do the same. My tears stopped for a moment and I began to breathe a wordless thanksgiving from a very broken heart.
Later, I found out her story. She had tragically lost her husband a few years before. The day of her hand-raising in the midst of worship would have been their wedding anniversary. She chose to praise in her pain, to thank God while grieving her tragedy, to worship despite her wounds.
That is true thanksgiving. We often think it can only come out of an overflowing heart from blessed circumstances. But that day I saw what true thanksgiving looked like. It took me back to the first Thanksgiving. The pilgrims celebrated their lives because they made it through winter even though most of the colony had tragically died. It was not from years of triumph, but from years of loss that they chose to give thanks. They survived. They saw another day. They still had breath in their lungs, and they used it to give thanks. In the grieving, they held onto hope.
Friend, I do not know what you may be experiencing. This Thanksgiving may be born out of loss and pain. I encourage you to follow the example of this precious woman who raised her hand to praise the God who comforts us, who is near us, who loves us, who takes care of us in our pain.
Psalm 34:18
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
May you feel the comfort of God as I did that day, knowing He understands our pain and others can encourage us to hold on, to believe God, to even thank Him on the very difficult days.