"Now Thank We All Our God"

I grew up hearing and singing a song this time of year. It was a song written in 1637 by a German composer, Martin Rinkhardht. He wrote it during the devastating time in his country known as "The Thirty Years War" and during an equally devastating time in his own personal life. During that year six thousand perished from his own village due to an outbreak of pestilence. This included the deaths of his own wife and children. Yet he wrote a song of thanksgiving. The lyrics I recall are these, "Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hand and voices; WHo wondrous things hath done, in Whom the world rejoices." What a testimony of a godly man to the faithfulness of God to sustain a life.
Tonight a church we had our Thanksgiving service. The church was packed and filled with joyful, thankful people. I love my spiritual family at Calvary of Albuquerque. There's no better group of folks I know of. They have sacrificed willingly to reach out to their community and to the world in so many ways and I'm honored to serve there. Tonight many brought their banners of thanksgiving and marched through the church so we could all read what they were thankful for. The one banner that would win for "Most Unique" was one sweet little girl thanking God for her five pet rats. (Yikes!) Loads of fun (and great pie afterwards!