Thankfulness List

A few years ago, Kerry Bacon shared a thankfulness list that she began during her husband Dan’s long battle with kidney cancer.  On Saturday last week, she shared in a text what I’m calling her Thankfulness List -  Bomb Cyclone version:

Our tree is down.  Praise that it missed the house, gazebo, 3 sheds.  Went thru the fence between 2 posts and just got fence boards not posts, seems to have not greatly damaged neighbors’ deck and it’s touching their huge kitchen windows but didn’t break it.  God’s perfect placement.

  Do I see it as that or do I see it as a huge bummer and tons of work to cut up this monster tree, which it is?  We have branches trimmed off on our side and Jim’s cutting what he can of the trunk with our inadequate small electric saw.  We have a bigger chain saw coming tonight with Amazon that we had money to buy.  We can finish our side of the tree and help our neighbor.  Beyond that we have a generator that has allowed light and heater fan to work.  We have gas heat so we are warm.  We have gas water heater so we have showers.  We are cooking on a grill with one burner too.  It’s not snow out so we can buy ready-made food at Costco with no fear of ice and snow.  Where is the focus?  On poor me for a tree down or wow God your protection and provision is glorious.

In our own case, Kent and I had gone to bed relatively early on the Tuesday night of the big storm, so I didn’t realize the power was out until morning.  Wandering down the hall with a flashlight around 6:45am, I ran into Kent, already dressed.  “I’m going down to see if there’s Men’s Breakfast at the Pancake House.”  “I’ll come with you.”

At Town Center, through the window, we could see Craig inside the restaurant.  Looked like power was on, so I headed back through town to find my own breakfast.  Some signals were out.  Starbucks?  Dark.  QFC?  Dark.  Across from city hall, River Trail Roasters was gloriously lit.  When I picked Kent up an hour later, he said, “We got coffee, but then the power went out, so no breakfast.”  And so we began our day in the Bomb Cyclone of 2024.

Over the next two days, we cooked some meals on our camp stove, and camped out at Redmond City Hall for many hours, where there was warmth, power and wi-fi.  Every meeting room on the first floor was full of wayfarers like us, and tables were set up in the spacious lobby.  City staff were welcoming, raiding offices upstairs for outlet strips and even buying boxfuls more to feed their power-hungry guests.  Strangers helped each other squeeze in and amicably swapped outage tales.  There was thankfulness for near misses, legions of helpers to clear the way through fallen trees and utility crews coming from even British Columbia to get our region powered again.

When we met with the Life Group on Monday this week, we swapped words of thankfulness which included, “Didn’t lose power”, “Got power back just today”, and “Stayed with our son one night and our daughter another”.  Variety in experience; unity in gratitude.

When Paul writes to the Philippians, “Be anxious for nothing . . . “, he instructs them to pray and ask “in everything . . . with thanksgiving.”  (Phil 4:6) As Keith Ferrin never tires of pointing out, “the Lord is near” (Phil 4:5) precedes this instruction and gives the foundation for our thankfulness and confidence.

Today, on Thanksgiving, the work of recovery goes on.  Just drive down 180th or NE 24th or look at our own church property.  And grieving too. But, thankfulness goes on and on, including both the passing earthly graces and the solidity of a loving, eternal Father.  As Kerry used to say, “God’s love and provision of Jesus on the cross blows away my thankfulness list!”  One anxiety replaces another.  One provision follows another.  But always, the Lord is near.