Thank You Day

What I am thankful for:

First and foremost, to God Almighty: thank you for sending your Son to die for all sin! The most awesome gift in the world. You can't buy what He gives on Black Friday! It's FREE! Without you, nothing is possible. With you, everything is possible. Your love is amazing!

To my wife: thank you for marrying me, putting up with me, teaching me, helping me, and bearing 2 beautiful sons! After that car ride, I am still baffled why you picked me!

To my sons: thank you for the fun, laughter, joy, heartache, pain, and most of all: your smiles!

To my parents, brother and sister: simply put, you are the best! I couldn't have dreamed of a better childhood. I couldn't have dreamed of better support and love.

To my church: what a journey it has been. But it's not over. Thank you for growing me as a man, husband, father, friend and Christ follower.

To my British friend JJ: thanks for the support and kicks in the butt. Thanks for straight talk and thanks for your ancestors coming over and inventing a meal for kings on this day. Oh yah, thanks for starting the best country on this planet!

To my friend and boss Danny: Thanks for your support in so many ways. Thanks for seeing a need, filling that need, and then giving me all the opportunities one man could ask for. You are an inspiration and a true role model for business, life, and family.

To all my friends: thanks for the good times, the bad times, the fun times and the weird times. Without you, I wouldn't be who I am. With you, well, it just would't be life.

On this day of thanksgiving,
Jesus Freak Out!

Arms Outstretched

I've been thinking about this for a while, but it never really clicked for me to write about until tonight. I was putting my 5 month old to bed tonight. He has finally learned to roll over, but when he does it in his sleep, he tends to either get a limb stuck in the bed rails or wake himself up. So what we do is wrap a blanket around his lower body and legs, but leave his arms out so he can inevitably chew on them and not wake himself up fighting a swaddling blanket. Plus, he is just to old to swaddle now. And I digress...........

Well, after his nightly routine of bath, bottle, and bedtime rocking (I love it when he sleeps in my arms where I get to watch him sleep while I play with those cute, chubby, little, dimpled hands), I went through the routine of wrapping him in his blanket while he lays on his back with his arms outstretched like Christ on the cross. It's just how I do it. But it really moved me tonight. What was God thinking as he watched his own Son on the cross, bearing the sin of the world, and suffering that pain and agony?

I couldn't imagine my son going through that, better yet, having to watch it from afar knowing that people would curse His name throughout the ages and drag his legacy through the mud because they could not see the sacrifice he bore for them. Personally, if I, a mere human had the power, I would .....................I can't say. It's just not what God would do.

Tonight just made me think about the sacrifice that Christ paid to fulfill his Father's will and save the world from the evil of sin. It makes my head spin just thinking about it.

Simply humbled tonight,
Jesus Freak Out!