The Bountiful Beautiful

Unless a man walks across America it is doubtful that he can ever experience a truly thankful Thanksgiving.  I have seen mountains of corn laid up beside endless filled silos, I have driven nine hours in grain and on a 1000-mile gravel road through only wilderness.  I have seen snow in July, green lightening in a blizzard, a small bowl valley of wildflowers atop a mountain peak, fish of every color, a wild wolf eating a steaming dear on a frozen lake.  I have seen heathen saved, the dead brought to life, the starved fed and the crippled walk.  I have seen acres of pecan trees, a lone apple tree fruited till its branches lay on the ground, winter wheat as green as God’s eyes and sat in trees bigger than my dining room.  I have seen my own humans come from love tender, death at 99, saints from evil homes and human beauty to match sapphires.  I’ve been a prodigal, been redeemed, washed up as refuge on a porch that took me in and been baptized more than once.  I’ve been carried off mountains by my wife and daughter, swam in lakes of my own blood, rescued lambs from cliffs and killed lambs with my bare hands.  I have been saved, been loved, loved, birthed and held a child before any other hand touched him, and now often, as this morning, laid in the dark bed while all slumbered telling God how thankful i am that He Is I Am.  Happy Thanksgiving God, You are doing a marvelous job with America the Bountiful Beautiful!!!