Thankfulness and Remembering

“Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget none of His benefits”

Psalm 103:2

Thankfulness is such a powerful thing. As we traverse the paths that God sets our feet to, there will come seasons where we look out into what lay ahead of us and there is nothing known. We stare into the unknown. It is uncomfortable. It is uncertain. It is full of the unexpected for we know not what to expect. Especially when we have spent a life in pursuit of His path. There is a point where you have passed through all that you dreamed of, all that you imagined as you looked ahead in your youth, and now you have no sense of what lay ahead but for the promise that what lay ahead will be better than what lay behind. And in these moments of the unknown, remembering His faithfulness becomes the anchor that allows courage as we step forth.

I stand in that season. I look ahead of me and I do not know what to expect. I have seen God answer all my dreams and hopes and I have come to the end of what I could grasp about my life. The thing which gives me courage in the face of the unknown is to remember all that He has already done. To remember His faithfulness to the whispers of my heart, remember His protection through the valley of the shadow of death, remember His healing touch at every point of pain, remember the rejoicing at the long hoped for gifts of my husband and career; and as I remember thankfulness bubbles up from my soul. I bless His name because I am thankful for the remembering of all that He has done. And as I thank Him for what is and what was, I find myself preemptively thanking Him for what will be,.

So in this time of thanksgiving, may we look back to see what He has done, sit in the faithfulness of what is now, and thank Him for the faithfulness that lies ahead.

By Amber Bonasso Thomas

Photo by Joshua Earle @joshuaearle and used by permission via Unsplash