The Full-Throated Shout

a devotional for late autumn

Hello, dear friends!

This Sunday, November 27th, marks the beginning of the Advent season! If you would like a FREE poetic daily devotional in the style of the work you read here, you can find my original Advent devotional ebook, Pilgrim God, at my website here!

There is no catch and no cost. I just hope it blesses your holiday season!

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Thank you for joining us!

Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:

Let me tell you, last week’s comment sections were FULL of wealth! Both sections from our devotional and our discussion are worth reading through. For this week’s highlight, I’ve decided to pull out this one, from

Jack McNulty

:

“I fight the changing of seasons every year – and when I say seasons, I really mean the changing of time. Losing an hour of light during the evening feels more like 3 hours…even though I haven’t lost anything, I still have 24 hours every day. Still…I have a battle with darkness every year. My mind tells me I need more light, more time, more, more, more… But I’m beginning to figure out something significant – the darkness brings me life. My spirit self wakes up…and all the distractions I embrace when the light forms the majority of the day vanish… The darkness of the season ushers in spiritual minimalism – everything seems simple…everything comes to light in the darkness.”

I think “spiritual minimalism” is such a great way to describe it! Beautifully said, Jack! Jack McNulty writes a mouth-watering newsletter called VeganWeekly, and every recipe looks incredible! Worth a look if you love yum!

If you want a chance to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!

Now, on with this week’s devotional…

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the squirrel folds her tiny paws
on the bough above
and prays
over the fir cone
she will soon

drop

and here, 
deeper in the woods, 
gratitude is everywhere:

a table laid
for all

large and small. 

down below
deep below
the sightless worms
twist
and taste

the nourishment of soil

and all above
gather
at pond
and log
and stone

to feast
and chatter
and sing
and tell their stories

and praise their God.

a rabbit startles, 
kicks its fine back feet
and vanishes

while above me
the owl blinks
and readies herself
for another night
of hymns. 

Some words are said so many times that they lose their meaning, or get close to it. I’m ashamed to say that gratitude is often one of those words. At least in my lexicon.

Autumn is a logical time to think about thankfulness. Whether you live harvest to harvest or not, traditionally autumn was a time when you gathered all of your resources like a deep breath before the plunge of winter. It is good to take stock, see the blessings, and give thanks to the source of those blessings. Without gratitude, you are in danger of pride. And there can be no pride in the cold depths of winter, only humility in the face of the wheel turning.

In the United States, the holiday of Thanksgiving is emotionally and historically complex, but I admit: I have fond memories of it from my own childhood. I love the foods that we only eat once a year, the excuse to see family and old friends, the conversations around the table. The reminder that some things change but some things stay the same.

It is common at the end of the meal for some families to go around the table and say what they are grateful for. This, also, is more complicated than it seems. Whenever this custom is exercised, I can’t always summon an answer that satisfies myself.

What can I say? I can’t list it all; we don’t have time.

But it occurs to me, as I walk around this land we live on, that thankfulness appears to be an effortless posture for the Creator-God’s creatures. They chatter and sing, they go about their business, and every movement is a testament to His grace, His generosity to them. Thankfulness is the logical response to being known, and held, and fed every single day.

To be thankful is to be alive and aware, seeing and naming the goodness around us. When we see and taste all that we are offered and respond with a full-throated shout of thanksgiving, there is no sweeter gift.

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Thank you for reading!

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