Today (Sunday) is the Thanksgiving Day celebration at both the University of Portland Center and at the International Church here in Salzburg. (There is no Thanksgiving Day holiday in Austria, only a harvest festival, so the expats have chosen to celebrate Thanksgiving Day today.)
I have never been more thankful in all my life. Not only has Nathan's life been spared, and his mind restored, but yesterday's remarkable grace was the way he accepted the way his eagerly-anticipated plans for the holidays have to be postponed.
Nathan has, for many months, been planning on traveling to meet up with close friends over the Christmas break; and he was telling us Friday (his first really lucid day) that "the show must go on." :) But yesterday, in God's providence, an ICU doctor explained to him that, even if he is able to stand by mid-December, he won't have the strength to travel. Nathan immediately accepted that, and told Hannah to email his friends to tell them his plans have changed. Nathan's calm acceptance of such disappointing news is itself a minor miracle. :) I consider it a dramatic result of the prayers of so many for him, and for us as a family.
Last night, on the way home from the hospital, I felt so relaxed. I wondered if it was right to feel that way when the Lord was done such remarkable things for us. Should I not feel excited? But I felt better about feeling so relaxed when, on arriving "home" for the night, I happened to read the words of the psalmist in Psalm 116:6-7: "I was facing death, and then he saved me. Now I can rest again..." :)
My thanksgiving psalm this Thanksgiving Day (adapted from the New Living Translation of Psalm 116:1-9, 12-13, 15, 19):
I love the Lord because he hears and answers prayers.
Because he bends down and listens,
I will pray as long as I have breath!
Death had its hands around Nathan's throat...
Then we called on the Lord:
"Please, Lord, save him!"
How kind the Lord is! How good he is!
So merciful, this God of ours!
Nathan was facing death, and the Lord saved him!
Now I can rest; the Lord has been so good to us.
What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for us?
I will praise the Lord for saving Nathan.
The Lord's loved ones are precious to him;
it grieves him when they die.
Praise the Lord!
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3 comments:
Ang saya-saya! Once again we rejoice with you at the many "victories" you witness daily there across the miles. We continue to earnestly pray for all of you! -- Ging and Herbert
We give thanks with you.
Paul and Karen Berg
Greg and Hannah,
Just to let you know that everytime I read your updates, it was like reading a devotional material. I was so touched and encouraged by how God had ministered to your needs. I've shared your testimony with our congregation this morning in my preaching about 'Giving Thanks in all circumstances" I Thess. 5:18. How you have give thanks in many things altho you have encountered so much adversity. Our prayers are with Nathan for his 6th surgery this coming Tuesday.
Eunice Shangkuan-Lim
November 18, 2007
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