Thanksgiving: Blessing the Empty and Thin

There were ten offerings of bread in every Thank-offering of the Israelites.  

The first were like crackers.

The second like wafers. These were known for their thinness. 

This was the order of thanks. 

The thanks began for the thin things, the wafer things that almost weren’t, and the way to give thanks for the people of God is first to give thanks for even the meager and unlikely. 

-Ann Voskamp, A Holy Experience

http://www.aholyexperience.com

To give thanks for the abundance, the plentiful, the overflowing. 

To give thanks in all things good, and all things full, blessing the harvest. 

But what about the empty fields? 

Two seasons, sometimes three seasons before Fall, when all that is seen is empty? The thought of thanking God and in doing so blessing the empty spots in our lives...

Thank you for empty, because in empty, there is faith that You will once again make it full. And in seeing the first rain drop, there is faith that it is only the first of many- that you not only fill the bucket, but that you make it overflow.  

    Image: http://tinyurl.com/chppamu

And that in the seasons to come,  others will also receive from what was once empty. 

So, I thank you for the empty. For the seasons when my relationship with You feels empty. For the seasons when I don’t feel Your tender presence close. Thank you for empty bank accounts, because I know that You have told me that they will not always be this way. I know that many will be fed both spiritually and physically out of these same bank accounts, in Your time.

Thank you for empty in my heart- when I feel that I have nothing left to give, because I know that You always fill empty, and if my heart is empty, and You fill it, then what I am offering can only be of You.

Image: http://tinyurl.com/bvguzr8

Thank you for thin.

...because it is not empty. 

Thank you that these places are thin, because it means that they will be the areas that I have to lean on you most. 

Thank you when ministry seems thin in places, because I know you are faithful. Thank you for thin, because in thin, I cannot lean on my own understanding. In thin, I come back to the Maker of all things, knowing that He never comes up thin.

And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Thank you for thin. When all I have to hold onto are your promises. The things that are in Your heart and mind. 

I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. Deuteronomy 11: 14

Thank you for time that so often seems thin, because it brings me back to You, asking You what your plans are for the time You've given me. 

When I look back, and all my greatest efforts and ceaseless workings only add up to only "thin."

I come back to the fullness that is You. Because I know that thin, now matter how stacked together it is, can never fill up the deep of my soul.

Image: http://tinyurl.com/cr5d54b